


Academy of Lies

by Brownies96, soft_and_bold



Series: Series of Lies [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Boarding School, Injury, M/M, Poisoning, They're 17, noone dies but its close
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 08:54:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 26,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15045413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brownies96/pseuds/Brownies96, https://archiveofourown.org/users/soft_and_bold/pseuds/soft_and_bold
Summary: Virgil Metry knows what it means not to be safe at a regular school. He's been sent to the prestigious and secret Foster Academy to get away from all that. But when he meets Logan, Patton, and Prince Roman things start going wrong, well, more wrong than usual.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to salt_n_burn this fic wouldn't have happened without you, I love you so much  
> And thanks to thepastelpeach for giving me the idea to make Logan's last name Berry.

Virgil stared pointedly out the window, doing his best to keep his eyes locked on the greenery that sprawled before them. He didn’t look at his dad who was sitting on the seat next to him. He knew his dad was already crying and if not looking at him, even to comfort him, was what he had to do to keep from crying himself, then so be it.

 

Virgil wasn’t about to turn up at a new school to be the kid that cried. He’d promised himself no more tears after his Mom had boarded her plane to Washington, even during her rare skype calls he’d managed to keep his eyes dry.

 

He looked down at his wrist to see the hospital bracelet still attached. His name, Virgil Metry, was spelt out in courier font along with his date of birth and ward number. He went to pull his multi-tool out of his pocket so he could remove the annoying piece of plastic and then remembered that it had been taken off him. Instead, he pulled at the bracelet. It took more force than he’d expected but it came off with a satisfying rip.

 

His Father turned to look at him which made Virgil look away, quickly returning his gaze back to the window. Outside, the trees were becoming sparser and a gravel path was visible between them. Once the start of the path met the road the car turned and followed the winding path until it met a large red brick building, with enormous, white windows. It looked like something out of a Jane Austen novel.

 

The car came to a halt and Virgil came to the realisation that he was going to have to walk out of this car, interact with people, and then finally try to settle himself in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar building. He wanted to curl up under his seat and stay there until the sun went away. But he had a school to go to and there was no way he’d live down hiding in the car.

 

He pulled himself out of the vehicle and allowed his Dad to help him take his bags out of the trunk even though it was just a backpack and suitcase. His Dad bent down to give him a hug. Virgil put so much energy into keeping his tears at bay that he almost didn’t hear his Father speak.

 

“You’ll be safe here. But I’ll miss you.” His Dad’s voice was strained, as if holding back tears of his own.

 

“Thanks Dad,” Virgil hugged back and watched a little forlornly as his Father got back in the car and was turned around to be taken away. It felt rushed, but Virgil supposed the super-secret Foster Academy didn’t want to let his Dad stay around for tea and biscuits in case he leaked their location. They were very well known for their strict security measures, after all.

 

Virgil walked up the stairs and couldn’t help but feel that the sunny weather was almost ironically unfitting for his mood. It was like the sky was giving him a huge, and obnoxiously bright, middle finger.

 

He opened the heavy door and was greeted by two people. A teacher and a student judging buy their ages.

 

“Hello, you must be Virgil,” The teacher stepped forward and shook Virgil’s hand which Virgil shook on autopilot, still trying to process the prospect of being away from his family and the rest of the outside world for so long.

 

“I’m Mr Sanders, I’m the principal of this fine establishment, so please feel free to let me know if you’re having any trouble or there’s anything you need. This here is Logan Berry, one of our best and brightest! He’s volunteered to help show you around and familiarise you with the school grounds, you also have your core classes together, so he can make sure you don’t get lost. I hope you feel right at home here.”

 

Virgil nodded in acknowledgement and glances at Logan. He looked way too put together, he was even wearing a tie, who wears ties when you don’t have to? But he didn’t look immediately malicious, Virgil supposed he could survive spending some time with the guy.

 

“Well, I’ll leave you two to get acquainted,” said Mr Sanders jovially before springing off to deal with what was most likely other appointments.

 

“Would you like me to show you your room? On the way I can show you where your first class will be tomorrow. I’m also in your dormitory so if you need me I’m in the room across the hall.” Logan was very to the point, Virgil nodded and tried to keep up with Logan’s dizzying verbal pace as he led him through the twisting corridors of his new school.

 

“The electronics policy here is probably the most different to that of other schools, you’ll not that you signed it with your admissions paperwork,” Logan explained as he led Virgil through the winding corridors, “We are allowed to look at external sites through the school’s built in VPN, but we aren’t allowed to post anything. We can use the school’s platform, the Foster database, to post within the school and message other students. It was built after an incident five years ago when people were bringing in contraband devices to access banned sites.” Logan explained.

 

They stopped at a small electronic pad beside yet another oak door, identical to the last 70 or so they’d just walked past.

 

“Place your hand here, so I can calibrate your handprint. Otherwise you won’t be able to get in.”

 

“Wouldn’t a key or something be easier?” Virgil complied despite his question.

 

“Keys can be easily lost or stolen. Parents wouldn’t send their children here if they weren’t certain we’d be safe.” After Virgil had put in his handprint Logan pressed the pad a few times. “Mr Sanders set it up so I could add you in, he’s the only person who can override the system so it’s very secure.”

 

The door opened to a hallway with a kitchen at the end of it, where the hall widened out a TV was mounted on the wall and a couch was pushed up against the opposite wall, some beanbags were strewn around haphazardly beside on the floor between them. Before the widening of the hallway there were four doors.

 

“This is your room.” Logan gestured to the first door on their left. “You are allowed to decorate but everything you put up must be removable, if you like I can give you some time to set your room up. I am in the room opposite yours. Please feel free to knock on my door if you have any questions. If you do not, then I will fetch you before dinner.”

 

Virgil watched Logan enter his room before taking a deep breath and opening his own door. The room was very bright, a large south-facing window, with a built-in seat, let in the sunlight that illuminated the white walls. Virgil was going to have to do some serious decorating. If only he knew where to start. He fought the urge to lay down on the bed and mope until Logan came to get him. Only the thought of coming back to this blank shell of a room stopped him. Instead he opened his backpack and pulled out his phone and some headphones and put on his newest playlist. The music gave him the energy to open his suitcase and begin.

 

He was startled several hours later by Logan appearing in his doorway.

 

“I did knock.” Logan said simply as Virgil pulled off his headphones and tried to recover his dignity.

 

“Sorry. Headphones.” Virgil struggled to get the words out past his embarrassment.

 

Logan didn’t say anything more on the subject, instead showing him the way down to the dining hall, where lunch and dinner were served every day. Virgil realised he was pretty lucky to have Logan showing him around, he didn’t feel . . . watched by him. It was comforting to know that someone wasn’t following his every move, just waiting for him to slip up. Instead, he felt completely inconsequential to Logan, which suited him just fine.

 

Dinner passed, and a few students seemed to look at Virgil, he could feel their eyes trailing his every move, which made him crave the safety of his room. He was relieved to finally make his way back to their dorm where he allowed himself to sleep on his newly made bed.

 

He was woken up before his alarm by a loud stomping sound outside his door. In his half asleep state he considered going outside to see who it was but the thought of that alone woke him up. No way in hell was he going to do that. He had to live with these people for at least the rest of the school year, or until his Mom got hurt or something. No, he definitely did NOT need to be thinking about that this early in the morning.

 

He lay in bed trying to shut off his thoughts until his alarm went off. Then he ran on autopilot for the morning, letting Logan show him where the cereal was for breakfast, going to his first class and doing his best not to draw attention to himself. He made it through maths and science with Logan before lunch. Logan showed him to the language corridor before departing for his Spanish class, Virgil sat down in beginners’ French and hoped he wasn’t too far behind. He’d been taking ASL as his language at his old school, but they didn’t offer it here.

 

“Is this seat taken?” Came a voice next to Virgil. Virgil lifted his hoodie off to see someone he didn’t recognise.

 

“I don’t think so.” Said Virgil.

 

“Excellent, I’m Patton, you’re the new kid in our dormitory, right?”

 

“Um,” said Virgil eloquently.

 

“I’m in the room next to yours, Logan said you were arriving yesterday. And I saw you in our core classes this morning”

 

“Oh, yeah, I am.”

 

“Well if you ever need anything I’m right next door.”

 

Once class had begun Virgil took a close look at Patton, he didn’t understand how anyone could be so . . . bouncy. He seemed nice enough, which was good. Especially if they were going to be in this class together. Although, Patton’s grasp of French didn’t seem to be all that much better than his.

 

If the number of doors gave the right impression, then they had another dorm-mate. If Virgil was lucky he’d be as normal as the others seemed to be. Virgil wasn’t a very lucky person.


	2. Chapter 2

Roman’s pages were ninety percent doodles and ten percent actual notes. He was tired of being shunted between language classes. His position meant that he’d been surrounded by people speaking a myriad of tongues as soon as he’d learned to talk. He wasn’t even sure which was his first. This semester it was intermediate Spanish and he was doing his best not to drive this teacher up the wall. He couldn’t help it, though, if he wasn’t interested (and learning the basics of a language he’d mastered years ago was as far from interesting as Roman could get) he would find something to interest himself.

 

He was drawing set designs for his drama project. He and Patton were planning to do one of Casey and Guy’s scenes from Boy Meets Boy ending with a song from the musical. Of course, he wasn’t in love with Patton, it was just that he wasn’t sure how much time he had left to be out, so he figured he should enjoy himself while he still could.

 

He was doing his best not to start drawing too much attention to himself. He stared at the clock and willed the second hand to move faster. Finally, the clock struck 1pm. Roman had already packed up his things and all but vaulted over the tables in his way to get out the door. He picked Patton up in his slipstream as he made a b-line for the dining hall.

 

“I met our new dormie in French,” Patton said once they were seated with their food, “He seems nice.”

 

“You think everyone’s nice.” Replied Roman, taking a bite of his food.

 

“Well I still think he’s nice.”

 

Roman rolled his eyes a bit. He was yet to find anyone Patton didn’t like, which was probably why they were such good friends. Roman was painfully aware that he wasn’t the easiest person to deal with.

 

“Have you already got your assignments?” Roman asked, somehow managing to speak between bites without being gross.

 

“Yep, I don’t know how I’m going to get through all of it.” Patton sighed and pulled out his planner. They were only three weeks in and it already looked like a mess.

 

“Tell you what,” said Roman magnanimously, “I’ll do your French work for you if you let me practice fencing on you.”

 

“Roman that doesn’t feel very fair. Wouldn’t I learn better if you tutored me or something?”

 

“Patton it’s our last year of school, how much French do you really think you can learn in one year.”

 

“Some.”

 

“Fine, I’ll ‘tutor’ you if you’ll spar with me.”

 

“Deal.” Patton agreed. “But you know I’m no good at fencing.”

 

“It’s not that you’re bad its just that you spend the whole time apologising.”

 

“Well, I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

 

“It’s sword fighting! You’re supposed to hurt people!”

 

As soon as they’d finished their meal they got up to leave. They had sport after this and were going to need time to get to the gymnasium. They walked together until they got to the entrance to the pool.

 

“Look, our new dormie takes swimming too!” Patton pointed to a figure in a black rashie standing next to Logan, “Bye Roman!” He waved and bounced over to Logan and the new kid.

 

Roman made his way to the fencing hall and prepared to fence. He may not have been a jock in the typical sense, or in any sense at all, but he couldn’t help but enjoy the almost romantic side of sword fighting, and fencing was the closest he was going to get.

 

He always felt better after fencing, it was nice to be told he was good at something by people who weren’t saying it to get something from him. The instructor, Mr Alera, who everybody called Leandro was a phenomenal teacher who only gave out praise when he meant it, making it mean all the more. And it didn’t hurt that he looked damn good even in fencing breeches.

 

Roman just wished he had time for a shower before heading to drama class but he had no such luck. The theatre was on the other side if the campus, so he had to move quickly to make it to class on time.

 

Patton was already waiting for him, his hair wet and smelling of chlorine. Their eyes met, and they immediately began to laugh. They really weren’t at their best.

 

“Oh, Roman!” Exclaimed Patton after his giggles had subsided, “I brought Logan and Virgil with me, so you can meet our new dormie. They had a free now anyway.”

 

Patton gestured at the doorway and Logan walked in followed by the hoodie-clad person he supposed was Virgil.

 

“Hi, I’m Roman,” he said, giving them one of his winning smiles. The hood came off and Virgil looked at him, his eyes went wide and Roman ignored the way his heart was sinking.

 

“You’re- “Virgil seemed to be lost for words.

 

“Yes, he’s the prince of Wondry.” Logan said.

 

“That’s Crown Prince thank you very much, nerd party insurance.” Roman retorted. Logan just smirked and adjusted his glasses.

 

The way Virgil was looking at Roman was making him feel very self-conscious, and painfully aware that he hadn’t managed to have that shower.

 

“So, Patton,” Roman changed the subject, “I’m thinking we do the scene near the end, the bit with ‘Does Anybody Love You: Reprise’ then we finish it there. Everybody loves a happy ending.”

 

“Well I certainly do!” Patton jumped on board and they immediately began discussing line delivery and blocking.

 

Virgil and Logan stayed on the stalls and watched until the class was over.

 

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to do that piece?” Well, well, well, thought Roman, looks like someone found their voice.

 

“Why not?” Roman responded to Virgil, “It’s a great piece and we can be certain no one else is doing it.”

 

“Yeah but aren’t you worried that your performance might get leaked? I didn’t think princes were supposed to take a side on political stuff.”

 

Roman wasn’t sure why but that really annoyed him. Was he worried someone might tell his country about his sexuality? Yes. Not because he was ashamed but because it wouldn’t matter, he was the sole heir, so he needed to have an heir of his own. Unless he found a politically significant trans man who would marry him and be in such a position with their transition that they could somehow have a child and be acceptable by his family and country’s standards, he wasn’t going to be able to have a relationship with anyone he loved. And he knew that was a damn tall order. Wondry wasn’t bigoted exactly, but they were quite attached to their Monarchy. But this wasn’t even him coming out, it was just a play, where his character happened to be gay.

 

“I’m still a person.” He said, “I can have opinions, like your opinion that that all-black ensemble isn’t a crime against humanity.” He knew that was a bit mean, but he wasn’t about to explain his complicated situation. Logan had probably just told Virgil that he was out at school but not outside it. But why would Virgil even have been asking about his sexuality? Probably because he was basically molesting poor Patton on the stage. He decided to ignore Virgil and instead checked up on his friend.

 

“You OK, Patton?” He asked, “Sorry about the . . .” He waved his hands about to imply the aforementioned molesting.

 

“I’m fine, so long as you never try that outside the theatre,” Patton grinned.

 

“Alas!” Roman claimed in mock heartbreak, “My advances have been spurned. I shall pine for you day and night for a thousand years.”

 

“Or until Leandro walks past you.” Logan quipped.

 

Roman wanted to turn to Logan and mock him but he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his lips, though it was quickly quelled when he saw Virgil’s surly face, what was that guy’s problem?


	3. Chapter 3

As if Roman wasn’t in enough of a mood, their next class was English. The four of them filed in and took seats at the back. Last week, Roman had made the mistake of not leaving drama early to get there on time and Mr Mendax had spent half of the hour-long class telling him off for wasting time. It was a shame Mr Mendax had no sense of irony.

 

By all means this class should have been at least a little interesting, Hamlet was a great play and Roman, by his own admission, was a sucker for Shakespeare. But for some reason Mr Mendax had spent the last three weeks talking, not about the actual text itself, but about the broader meaning of the text. The more layers of analysis Mr Mendax tried to add, the more life was drained out of the test and Roman doubted that he’d ever want to read the play again after they were done.

 

“Can anyone tell me what this play has to say about the concept of jewels?” Mr Mendax looked around at the class. Damn, he was expecting them to contribute to his madness.

 

“Well, in the final act of the play queen Gertrude mentions a pearl which is poisonous.” Logan answered.

 

“That is one piece of evidence,” agreed Mr Mendax, “that links the idea of finery and jewels with death. What literary technique is this?”

 

“Foreshadowing.” Roman answered, “Because everyone except Horatio dies.”

 

“Wrong.” Mr Mendax’s expression was odd, “It’s simple metaphor, people of high rank die, imagery associated with high-ranking people are linked with death. However, that was a valiant effort Mr Maoilriain” He continued to smile as he said this to Roman. Roman was surprised to notice that the teacher had heterochromia.

 

“Sir, couldn’t you also argue that it is the other way around, the idea that like life, wealth and status are fleeting

 

“I think you’ll find that I am the English teacher here, Mr Berry.”

 

Roman enjoyed the praise, especially when it was given to him over Logan, but he felt odd, this was the teacher who’d made no secret of his dislike for him and now he was giving his approval? Not all of it, admittedly, but that was Roman’s own fault. He had a lot to focus on. Nevertheless, the offhanded compliment did not sit well with him.

 

He didn’t wait for Patton or any of the others after class, instead walking back to their dorm as quickly as he could and closing his door. He didn’t want to have to explain to them why he was feeling so uncomfortable.

 

*          *          *

Virgil awoke to realise they had another English class first thing. Great, he thought sarcastically. He pulled his clothes on and made his way to the kitchen, pouring himself cereal and wondering if it would be terrible for him to call in sick on his second day. The doctors at the hospital had said not to push himself too hard. He knew he shouldn’t and the idea of people staring at him, wondering why he was already taking the day off cemented his decision.

 

He and Logan made their way to English, Roman and Patton were already there and sitting dead at the back. Virgil couldn’t help but wonder if this teacher could hear himself. The nonsense he spouted out of his mouth was almost impressive. Virgil took notes, he didn’t want to fail, but he didn’t believe a word of what he wrote.

 

Mr Mendax mostly spoke during this class, not calling students as much as he had the previous day but at the end of the class he decided to have another go at the class. “You need to engage in my class, I’m here to teach you.”

 

“You don’t exactly give us a chance,” Virgil heard Roman mumble from behind him. While Virgil agreed with Roman’s sentiment he wasn’t about to give the royal show-off any credit.

 

Mr Mendax didn’t seem to have heard him, though.

 

When class finished Virgil followed his dorm-mates to the gymnasium and waited for Roman to leave for fencing. He turned to Patton and asked.

 

“What’s Roman’s deal?” Virgil paused, no turning back now. “And why does he hate me?”

 

Patton’s expression shifted, and he looked at Virgil with pity. “He doesn’t hate you. Roman is what happens when you raise a literal Prince on Disney movies. He’s under a lot of pressure and for the most part he handles it but well,” Patton broke off, “It’s not for me to say but parent teacher night is coming up and you’ll see what I mean.” Patton smiled warmly at Virgil, “He really doesn’t hate you, he just hates having his ideas shot down, but he’ll get over it. Now come on, we have to get changed.”

 

Foster Academy’s swimming classes were fast paced and brutal for everyone except Virgil, he was able to just jump into the pool and stay under for as long as he could without getting into trouble as long as it wasn’t his turn to swim a lap. The doctor’s note the hospital had sent meant he didn’t have to do much at all. He loved it. Everything was so peaceful underwater, but there was just enough pressure on him that he had to focus on what he was doing instead of his mind wondering into all the different things he’d done wrong so far. It made for a nice change. The only thing that made it difficult, was the fact that he was being singled out for special treatment, but he pushed the discomfort that came with that to the back of his mind.

 

Once he’d dried off, he decided to follow Patton to drama again. He didn’t have enough homework to put his frees to use just yet and he found he actually liked Patton. He was just so genuinely nice that even Virgil didn’t second guess his intentions.

 

He watched Roman and Patton perform and did his best not to laugh at how mortified Patton was by Roman’s romantic behaviour towards him. Roman always apologised afterwards but that didn’t make Patton’s responses any less funny. While they were running their scene, Virgil saw some light to his right and saw a student filming the exchange on their phone. He remembered what Logan had told him about Roman’s precarious situation with his sexuality and concern knotted in his stomach. He debated with himself whether or not he was going to do something, never taking his eyes off the phone, but when the phone user, a guy Virgil was pretty sure was called Damen, opened twitter and began to post the video, Virgil acted.

 

He grabbed the phone and immediately switched it to aeroplane mode, so the post couldn’t be made, then he deleted the video. He turned to Damen and his angry words caught in his throat for a second before he pushed them out.

 

“You don’t get to out people. How Roman and Patton run their scene has nothing to do with you and posting things like that to twitter is definitely enough to get yourself kicked off the Wi-Fi!” Virgil remembered the internet usage policy. “People’s sexualities, real or acted, aren’t for you to police, asshole!”

 

Virgil finished and looked around, oh crap, the entire room was staring at him. The teacher took the phone from his hands and said. “I’m Mx Stokes, you aren’t enrolled in this class but that was a very decent thing you just did.”

 

“I-I I have a free right now,”

 

“Well then,” they said, “You are very welcome to stay here. Would you mind writing up an incident report for me as the witness to –“ Mx Stokes gestured at Damen, “this mess.”

 

“Sure,” Virgil mumbled and allowed himself to be taken into the drama office.

 

As soon as he was done he was attacked by a whirlwind of Roman.

 

“Are you alright? Do you need anything?”

 

“‘M fine,” Virgil mumbled. There was a pregnant pause.

 

“Thank you, Virgil.” Roman’s voice was lower this time and his eyes met Virgil’s.

 

“Whatever, you don’t deserve to go through that. I’d know.” Virgil immediately regretted adding that last part, but it was too late.

 

“Were you outed at your old school?” Roman asked. Virgil just nodded. “That sucks.” Roman said, “Shall we go to lunch?”

 

“I’m glad to see you two getting along,” Patton joined them.

 

“No way!” Said Roman, “he’s an emo nightmare!” But his words lacked the bite they had held before.

 

“Why thank you,” Virgil responded, the beginnings of a laugh showing on his face.

 

“What’s your elective anyway, Virgil?” Patton asked.

 

“Textiles,” said Virgil, “I have it after lunch.”

 

“I always wanted to learn to sew.” Patton said wistfully.

 

“It’s not that hard.” Virgil felt uncomfortable under the scrutiny.

 

“Maybe I’ll get you to teach me,” Patton grinned, “I’ll make you cookies.”

 

“Deal,” said Virgil, he wasn’t about to turn down a cookie.


	4. Chapter 4

Virgil allowed himself to be eased into the routine of Foster Academy over the rest of the week. It was strange because everything was so new but also so familiar. It was strange waking up at school, but it did mean extra sleep-in time, so he wasn’t about to complain. He stopped calling the dining hall the cafeteria and slowly managed to make his way to class without help.

 

He also learned more about the social aspects of the school. For example, apparently everyone in the school knew that Patton and Logan were into each other, and had been for years, except of course Patton and Logan. And that Roman could and would turn any situation into the most melodramatic version of events that he could. These were small steps, but they did help him feel a little more at ease.

 

It was Thursday morning, “the dreaded day of doubles” as Roman had dubbed it, as it began with double language and ended with double English. Virgil noticed that Patton was tapping his pencil absentmindedly over his conjugation tables, not even attempting to do his work.

 

“Are you alright?” Virgil asked quietly.

 

“Hmm?” Patton’s eyes focused and he looked at Virgil.” Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about parent-teacher night tonight.”

 

“That’s tonight?” Virgil was surprised, he hadn’t heard anything about it since Patton had mentioned it the previous week.

 

“Yep, the school contacts your parents and organises a time for a skype call. We all go down for the interviews after dinner, but some parents will have had to go by then.”

 

“Why’s it so early in the year?”

 

“Its senior year, they need to have it soon enough that if you’re in the wrong track for your diploma you can fix it in time?”

 

“I thought we didn’t do diploma’s here?” Virgil was getting very confused, “Don’t we do the International Baccalaureate?”

 

“Yeah, the IB diploma.” Patton kept his voice gentle, Virgil calmed his spinning mind. But it made it impossible for him to focus on conjugating French verbs. He might see his parents tonight. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it. He tried to push himself to focus on his French, but it simply wasn’t going to happen.

 

The rest of the day was much the same, nobody talked much, even at lunch. Everyone seemed off in their own world. Virgil could understand that; Foster Academy was a school for kids whose parents were important enough that their kids weren’t safe at normal schools. There was his Mom, Patton’s mother was a diplomat or something, and Logan’s parents owned Berry Corp which ran most of the world’s satellites, and Roman, well that was obvious enough. He wondered when any of them had last seen their parents. No wonder there was such a cloud hanging over the school.

 

By the time English class came around, no one was even bothering to pretend to do any work. Virgil saw Dalia, the girl who sat in from of him, pull out her phone and open the school’s messaging app, and immediately begin messaging her friend Rafaela. It took Virgil several moments to realise that Mr Mendax wasn’t even there. Ten minutes into class time everyone was looking around agitatedly, eager to go down to the auditorium for the interviews and unable to come up with a reason to stay.

 

Mr Sanders poked his head through the door and assessed the situation, Virgil saw him arrive at his conclusion, they were barely paying attention as it was, a substitute on top of it all would lead to nothing getting done whatsoever.

 

“As Mr Mendax is unwell, you can all go down to the auditorium.” Mr Sanders had the sense to move away from the door after making that announcement, because the students poured out of the room like a tidal wave.

 

Virgil was thrilled to see Mx Kat, the seriously cool textiles teacher, on skype. He took a step forwards, expecting to see his dad, holding a camera at an awkward angle in the kitchen, but instead he saw his mom, sitting professionally at a desk in a room he didn’t recognise.

 

“Hi,” he said, trying not to mumble.

 

“Hello Virgil,” His Mom’s tone was warm but still conveyed her usual no-nonsense attitude. “I’m glad you’ve been doing well here. You haven’t had any trouble like at your last school?” She was phrasing her words carefully, Virgil was reminded of the night she came home to him crying and trying to block the people he’d thought were his friends on Facebook. They’d never talked about it but he knew she’d hated seeing him like that.

 

“Yeah, it’s all good here. People are alright.” Virgil saw the dark circles under her eyes and decided he wasn’t going to unload on her his confusion about whether or not Roman still hated him.

 

“And you’re safe?” His Mom peered at him through the screen.

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

She paused and looked at him, chewing her lip in the same nervous way he did. “They found the guys who . . . got you,” She said finally. “They’ve been charged and arrested.”

 

“Oh,” Virgil swallowed, “That’s good.” He fidgeted with his shirt over his chest where the scar was healing.

 

He didn’t know what else to say and it was clear his mom didn’t either but fortunately Mx Kat took over and Virgil was able to lapse into silence. He did his best not to focus on the attack. He was in a completely different part of the country, it was over two months ago, he was safe here. He focused on his breathing and tried his best to stop shaking.

 

Once that was over his mom had to go do some kind of meeting and he made his way to the dining hall and grabbed some dinner.

 

He wasn’t sure what made him want to go back out to the auditorium instead of back to his room, but he found himself outside the door to a meeting room. From the window in the door he could see inside. Roman and Mr Williams, talking on skype not only to two people who were seriously wearing crowns, but to the entire room full of people on the other end. The five-hour time difference meant that light was streaming in on the other side of the call, but Virgil could make out at least forty silhouettes.

 

Did Roman have to have his interview broadcast to his entire country? That couldn’t be the entire country, maybe just the royal council? That was nuts. How did Roman act so normal? How did he find time to brush his teeth, and eat breakfast, and do homework, knowing that everything would be broadcast to an entire room full of people?

 

Virgil felt an enormous stab of sympathy. Some part of him wanted to burst through the door, or shut off the internet, or do anything that would get Roman out of that scrutiny, but that part of him was kept in check by the rest of him that knew exactly how stupid those ideas were. He realised this was what Patton had meant when he’d talked to Virgil.

 

Some movement through the window caught his eye, and he realised Roman had spotted him. Crap. He turned on his heel and raced to his room.


	5. Chapter 5

For the next few days he waited until he’d heard Roman bound out the door before he even considered leaving his room. He felt like he was ruining everything. He just wanted to go one day without screwing everything up, was that too much to ask? There had been a chance that he could have at least gotten along with Roman, but now he was the weird guy who stalked him at the parent teacher interviews. Virgil had spent most of the weekend in his room only leaving for food and all of Monday keeping his human interactions to the bare minimum. So, he wasn’t really surprised when Logan and Patton knocked tentatively on his door on Tuesday morning.

 

“Sorry to disturb you, Virgil, but Patton insisted that we check on you,” Logan said as he entered.

 

“You were worried too,” Patton said right behind him.

 

“I registered my concern, worry sounds a tad extreme.”

 

“Virgil, are you alright? Is this because you think Roman hates you?” Patton peered at him.

 

“That’s what this is about?” Logan spoke before Virgil had even thought of a response. “But it’s obvious that-“

 

“Logan, let Virgil talk,” said Patton gently, placing a hand on Logan’s shoulder.

 

“Um,” Virgil began, “I saw his parent-teacher interview and then he saw me seeing it and I just . . .”

 

“Evidently, you panicked.” Logan supplied.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Virgil, his interview isn’t a secret. And it wouldn’t be the first time someone’s seen it from outside the room.” Patton smiled at Virgil, “I’ve known him since we were tiny and trust me, this isn’t the sort of thing he’d care about.”

 

Patton’s words gave him some reassurance but didn’t entirely shake the sinking feelings that had taken residence in his stomach.

 

“Also, while I am not exactly an expert on Roman, or feelings for that matter, I can assure you that none of us actually know enough about you to hate you.” Logan said. But that also means you don’t know me well enough to like me, Virgil thought.

 

“Look, thanks for the pep talk and all but I’m fine. Really.” He lied. But, of course, there was no escaping them as they all had English class together next, so he let them guide him into the kitchen and ate breakfast with them, not contributing to their conversation.

 

“Logan, did you understand the homework Mr Mendax gave us?”

 

“To be honest with you not entirely, but hopefully there is enough information in the text that I don’t need to get any from him.”

 

“I’m glad you’re smart enough to understand it, I might need your help later.”

 

“I’ll give it in exchange for your cookies.”

 

“Ooh! I’ve been meaning to make a batch. Do you know what the secret ingredient is?”

 

“Cinnamon?”

 

“No, silly, it’s love.”

 

Logan and Virgil rolled their eyes together at Patton’s proclamation.

 

In English class Virgil did his best not to stare at Roman. It was harder than it should have been because Mr Mendax kept drawing attention to Roman, getting him to read lines aloud and complimenting his delivery. It was normal to look at someone while they were speaking, right? He wasn’t being weird, right? Roman didn’t seem to notice him all that much, he smiled and then immediately dived into a darker character, delivering Hamlet’s ‘seems’ monologue from Act 1 scene 2 with such conviction you’d never believe the amount of time he spent teasing Virgil for wearing all black.

 

“These but the trappings and the suits of woe.” Roman finished, head bowed. Then he immediately looked up with a grin on his face, Virgil reeled from the change but allowed himself to be swept up in the applause Mr Mendax was rousing from them. Virgil had to admit, they guy was a damn good actor. That didn’t mean he liked him, though.

 

Virgil managed to survive swimming and used his free to set up his textiles project for after lunch. Only the thought of the look Patton would give him if he didn’t eat lunch made him leave the textiles room long enough to grab some food. He could see Roman, Logan, and Patton at their usual table smiling and laughing. Virgil went to the counter and ordered off the limited menu and sat down to join them.

 

“Hello there, Misery Business,” Said Roman tapping Virgil’s black hoodie with his elbow.

 

“’Tis not alone my inky cloak,” Virgil smirked back.

 

“You? A fellow Shakespeare aficionado? I can scarce believe it?” Roman placed a hand on his head and pretended to faint. “next you’ll be telling me you’re a lover of Disney too!”

 

Virgil’s smirk widened, and he shrugged. Roman pretended to fall off the booth. The conversation returned to what it must have been before, the science class that lay ahead.

 

“I can’t wait to get my hands on the litmus paper,” Logan said, was that a smile Virgil could see on his face? Virgil supposed he couldn’t be a complete robot.

 

“I can’t wait to test all the sodas!” Patton chimed in, “I wonder if we’ll get to drink any.”

 

“No.” said Logan at the same time as Roman said “They can’t stop us if we don’t ask.”

 

Virgil tried to hide his laugh at that, he pushed his finished food away and said good bye, he had a textiles class to go enjoy.

 

Textiles was every bit as awesome as Virgil had hoped. Mx Kat loved his minor project idea and didn’t pressure him too hard to come up with a major project. He knew he didn’t have a huge amount of time but Mx Kat seemed to understand that pressuring him would just make him put it off harder. He went to science class feeling better than usual and took his place at one of the benches with Logan. Patton and Roman came to class just as it was about to start and stood on the other side of the bench.

 

The experiment was easy enough to understand and Logan was hogging the litmus paper, so Virgil watched Patton and Roman. Roman wasn’t talking, which was definitely odd, Patton was watching Roman closely, like he was the project instead of the soda.

 

So suddenly that Virgil flinched, Roman gripped the desk and fell slightly, causing an empty soda bottle to topple over. Patton righted it and went right back to staring at Roman intently.

 

“You alright, Princey?” Virgil asked.

 

“Fine, fine,” Roman waved, “Since when do you call me Princey?”

 

“Since when do you dish out nicknames but not take them?” Virgil retorted.

 

“Fair enough.” Roman responded. “If the nerd over there is going to do all the work I think I’ll sit down.” Roman delivered that with a fake yawn and slid out of Virgil’s line of sight.

 

In math class Roman’s head stayed stuck to his desk, similarly Patton’s brow remained furrowed with concern every time he looked at Roman, and Virgil found himself caring less and less about what was a normal amount of time to spend staring at Roman.

 

He cornered Patton as soon as they’d all gotten back to their dorm room.

 

“What’s going on with Roman?” he asked.

 

“I wish I knew,” Patton sighed, “Ever since our free he’s been a bit . . . well, you’ve seen him. I’m glad you care, though.” Patton patted him on the shoulder and went over to Roman’s room with some paracetamol and a glass of water.

 

“I . . . don’t,” Virgil said to the air where Patton had been.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW for emetophobia (vomiting)

The next day, Roman was not fine. But he wasn’t about to tell anybody that. He felt better than he had the day before, but that wasn’t saying all that much. He made himself sit up and sighed with relief when he realised it was Wednesday and he could sleep in. He immediately flopped back down and tried to sleep. He didn’t get to sleep but he wasn’t alert either, drifting in and out of a haze.

 

He was jolted into his own awareness by Patton letting himself in.

 

“C’mon Roman we have to head to maths, hurry up.”

 

“Noooooooooooooo,” Roman stretched out the word as Patton pulled the covers off him and handed him a pile of cloth that turned out to be an outfit.

 

“Get changed, already, and eat this,” Patton handed him some toast that he managed to chew on absently.

 

“Patton,” Roman said.

 

“If I leave you’ll go right back to bed, you’ve never been shy before so hurry up.”

 

Roman got dressed, it was hard because he kept tripping on his pant legs, but he couldn’t let Patton know just how crap he felt. He’d known Patton since they were five and Pat’s mother had been ambassador to Wondry. He knew that if there was one thing Patton took seriously, it was making sure other people were OK. Roman just hoped his acting skills were up to the challenge.

 

By the time they reached math class things were a little more in focus and he was at least able to do his work. His line delivery in English was not up to scratch at all but Mr Mendax didn’t say anything other than praise, so he was probably just being too critical of himself again.

 

At lunch he sat with Virgil, Patton, and Logan. He didn’t feel Patton’s gaze on him as much as it had been, and there was no reason for it to be, he felt miles better than this morning. Was he up for his usual melodrama? No, but he could watch and listen without feeling exhausted. And what he was seeing sure was interesting. Patton was leaning across the table towards Logan who was saying something about the science project they were supposed to write the report for after lunch. Patton was interjecting every now and then with appropriate “wow”s.

 

When he said, “Thank goodness you’re on our lab team, you’re so smart I never would have thought of that!” Logan turned such an interesting shade of crimson that only Roman’s exhaustion was preventing him from laughing.

 

“I, uh, thank you Patton,” said Logan, he looked around clearly trying to get rid of his blush, “Look at the time, we have class soon let’s go.” Logan spoke quickly as if that would make his awkward subject change any less obvious.

 

Roman stood up and the floor seemed to move up and down under his feet. Oh crap, not again. Just one foot in front of the other, he told himself, doing his best to just follow the Virgil-shaped blob in front of him.

 

Ms Torres, the science teacher sat them down and had them writing their reports up. Roman only managed to write his first heading before dropping his pen. He could feel a sheen of sweat on his forehead and his heart was racing. He slowly eased himself down to grab his pen and felt his hands shake around it. He lifted his hand and immediately got such a powerful head rush that his vision faded.

 

Ouch. His head hurt, his leg was at a weird angle. One of his arms was being held up by something, he opened his eyes and it was . . . Virgil? He shifted his weight and noted that he could move all his limbs without pain with relief.

 

“I’m gonna let go now, Princey.” Virgil released his arm slowly and Roman was able to carefully ease himself back onto the table.

 

“Mr Maoilriain, what happened?” Ms Torres had rushed over.

 

“I, uh,” Talking and staying upright weren’t going to happen at the same time.

 

“I saw him faint Ms Torres, he bent down to pick up a pen and then, -“ Virgil mimed falling off his chair.

 

“I see, thank you Mr Metry.”

 

Roman could feel his heart picking up again, oh God he couldn’t focus on anything, his eyes searched around for something, anything, to see clearly but there were only blurs. He could feel his stomach turning and turn to the blandest looking blur to throw up on. There were no cries of ‘ew! That was my lap” or anything so he was pretty sure it had just landed on the floor.

 

More than anything he wanted to fall asleep and wake up in a few days feeling better. When did someone drop several elephants onto his head? It was making it hard to think. He closed his eyes in the hope it might calm the pounding in his skull.

 

“Mr Maoilriain, please make your way back to your dormitory, you clearly aren’t well enough for class.”

“I’ll take him,” wait, that was two voices, he recognised Patton but was the other Virgil?

 

“I can miss sport because of my doctors note, you should go to class, take some French notes for me.” That was definitely Virgil’s voice.

 

“Alright,” Patton’s voice responded.

 

Roman felt himself get hooked over Virgil’s shoulders and they clumsily left the room. Could he fall asleep on Virgil?

 

“Shit!” They stumbled, apparently not.

 

By the time they got to their dorm they’d stumbled five more times and Virgil was sweating form the strain of carrying his and Roman’s weight.

 

“This probably would’ve worked a lot better the other way around.” Virgil grunted.

 

That made Roman smile, but he didn’t have the energy to respond. He felt them turn and the soft beep of the access panel let them stagger into the dormitory. He unhooked himself from Virgil and blindly moved towards the blur that he hoped was his door, fumbling with the handle he fell forwards and landed on his bed.

 

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so sick. Back in Wondry there had always been a huge fuss every time he so much as sniffled. In the past he’d always felt stifled but just then he wished he could have been held and told that he would recover, and that people believed in him. He wasn’t about to ask Virgil, or anyone else for that matter, to help, but some part of him, really wanted to.

 

Touch starved and aching, he let sleep claim him.


	7. Chapter 7

Roman continued to feel like crap. There were points during the day where he’d feel like maybe, just maybe he was getting better, but his hopes would be dashed every time as another wave of dizziness would claim him.

 

Thursday was a blur of that emotional rollercoaster but on Friday morning he was determined. He waited until he’d heard everyone leave and then began the mad dash to the drama theatre, he made it just as the bell rang. He began running through his lines and it was all going very well until he realised he was going to need to practice with Patton.

 

“What are you doing out of bed?!” Patton was usually awful at being threatening but this time he was managing it.

 

“I’m fine.” He said, the room was only spinning slightly. “Run lines with me.”

 

Patton pulled out his phone and looked at Roman, he didn’t recognise the odd expression Patton was making, which was frankly rude given how long they’d known each other.

 

Roman began saying his lines and although Patton responded he seemed elsewhere, always glancing behind Roman in a way that made Roman feel a bit self-conscious. He was considering bringing it up when Patton’s expression changed into a smile. Roman turned around and saw Virgil glaring at him wryly.

 

“I got your message,” he said to Patton then he grabbed Roman’s arm and began dragging him towards the door. Roman glared at Patton as he was dragged out the door _Traitor_.

 

“Let me go, Doctor Gloom!” Roman spattered indignantly.

 

“You’re sick, go back to the dorm.”

 

“I won’t go to the dorm! You can’t make me.”

 

“Fine, I won’t.” Virgil abruptly changed direction and Roman was so surprised that he didn’t put up much of a fight.

 

“Where are we going?” Roman asked.

 

“Not the dorm,” Virgil responded vaguely.

 

“Where?”

 

“Somewhere.”

 

Then Roman realised which corridor they were in. Oh no. What was it with him and being betrayed today? Virgil was taking him to the infirmary. Dr Goldberg looked surprised to see them arrive in such an undignified manner, as once Roman had realised where he was being taken he had redoubled his efforts to escape Virgil’s evil clutches.

 

“He’s sick.” Virgil said simply.

 

“I’m fine, Charlie Frown,” Roman stuck his tongue out.

 

“He’s faint and dizzy and he threw up in class, Also I’m basically holding him up right now.” Virgil said to Dr Goldberg, not even looking at Roman.

 

“You are not!” Roman stepped away from Virgil to prove his point and immediately fell over. Virgil smirked at him.

 

Dr Goldberg began to examine Roman, though he directed his questions at Virgil who was more than happy to tell the doctor everything. How had Virgil even noticed all that? He’d thought he’d been hiding just how bad he felt effectively but with every answer Virgil gave he realised he hadn’t.

 

Virgil stayed with him until the bell rang, the sudden noise sending Virgil several feet into the air. He left but not before giving Roman a tentative salute. And Roman was alone. That was never good.

 

He could feel pressure on his skull and tried to escape it by retreating further into his mind. He could almost picture Wondry, the cold sea air that bit into his skin every time he came home seemed to fill his lungs. The castle, a huge stone keep that overlooked the entire Capitol, stood imposing over the coastline and hillside. And the ethereal mist that was so common at home and that nothing in the United States came close to, hovered about at the edges of his vision. He loved it, but it was also suffocating.

 

He walked through the palace hounded by people, every time he thought he’d gotten rid of one several more would appear. He felt the familiar pull of nostalgia, the longing for his parents to hold him and tell him everything would be OK, and that they knew he was a good person. He wondered if that had ever happened, or had he just been so secure in his parents love as a child that he’d never doubted it?

 

But now he was almost certain that his parents didn’t know him, certainly not enough to love him. He’d spent years of his life trying desperately to strike the balance between the prince he was supposed to be and the person he was. Maybe there was no balance, maybe he was going to spend the rest of his life performing, maybe no one would ever actually know him.

 

That wasn’t fair. Patton knew him, he was so accepting of anything Roman had to say that he’d never questioned letting Patton into his life. But where did that leave them in the future? He couldn’t stand the idea of Patton’s pitying face as he married some nameless girl. Oh no, that wasn’t a good thought either, not very feminist of him, the girl would have a name, and a life, and hopes, and dreams, and Roman would never be able to fulfil any of that for her.

 

He was brought out of his reverie by Dr Goldberg brining him a plate of lunch and Patton trailing behind with his own food.

 

“Virgil messaged me,” Patton said, and Roman felt a twinge of guilt over how he’d just been thinking of Patton.

 

“Whatever, traitor,” He tried to bluster but his heart wasn’t in it.

 

“You can’t go pushing yourself like that, Roman,” Patton sat down beside his sick bed and Dr Goldberg placed the tray of food in front of him, pressing some buttons on a remote to move Roman’s bed into a sitting position.

 

Roman picked at his food and watched Patton. “I want to be doing something.” He said finally, accepting that he wouldn’t find any better words. “I’m just so bored here”, wildly gesturing at the whole lot of nothing that the room contained.

 

“But you need to stay here and get better.”

 

“Patton please, you know me, you know I shouldn’t be left alone like this.”

 

“I’ll try to keep you company when I can but, your health is important.”

 

“Patton please let me do something, anything, I’m your best friend.”

 

“Exactly, and best friends don’t let best friends overwork themselves while they’re sick.”

 

Roman pouted but let Patton distract him with tales of math and science classes.

 

When the bell rang for fifth period, however, Patton left. Roman finished his lunch sadly and tried to stand up to wash his hands. But even sitting up brought on a strong wave of vertigo and his vision went black.

 

He woke up feeling gross and with Dr Goldberg cleaning him up. He wanted to protest but his mouth muscles didn’t want to move.

 

He wasn’t sure what time it was when Logan came into the infirmary, but the sun seemed to be quite low in the sky.

 

“Hello Roman. Patton asked me to come check on you as he and Virgil were given an exorbitant amount of French homework that they have to get through.”

 

“Oh, hi.”

 

“Indeed. Patton also said that I am under strict instructions to keep you distracted as if I do not you will attempt an escape.” Patton knew him way too well. “So, I will attempt to keep you occupied with this.” Logan pulled out a large book and placed it on Roman’s lap, the cover was black with gold embossing and Roman recognised it immediately as his copy of Treasure Island.

 

Roman tried to read it but his vision wouldn’t focus for long enough. He put the book down in frustration and looked at Logan who was working on the bench next to the bed.

 

“Hey Logan,” He said trying not to sound suspicious. From the look Logan gave him he suspected that it hadn’t worked.

 

“If you let me get up and do something I’ll . . .” he paused, what would Logan want, “Buy you the new Texas Instruments graphing calculator.” Wow, that was lame. But Logan actually looked tempted.

 

“Are you in earnest?”

 

“Uh. Sure.”

 

Logan made some very interesting facial expressions, to the point where Roman almost wanted to go looking for some popcorn, but he finally settled.

 

“No.” Dammit! Why couldn’t Logan just let him do this? How much had Patton told him? Ah, there was the issue. Roman sighed. He was going to go stir crazy stuck in here for the entire weekend, he was going to have to find some way to get them to let him leave.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw homophobia, sexism, and violence

Virgil wasn’t sure why he’d agreed to prince-sit. He still had all his French homework to do but he really couldn’t resist Patton’s puppy dog eyes or Logan’s reasoning. And it was true that the others had done their part to watch Roman, and that Roman’s fluency in French might help him get his homework done but it just felt a bit weird.

He regretted his decision as soon as he walked into the infirmary. 

“Please can I leave?”  
“No.”  
“Pretty please.”  
“No.”  
“I’ll buy you a . . . I dunno a My Chemical Romance CD?”  
“I already have all of them.”  
“Of course you do, can I leave anyway?”  
“No, Roman.”  
“Please I’ll give you bribe money?”  
“What part of ‘no’ are you not understanding?”  
“I’ll give you pretty money?”  
“What?” Virgil felt his face grow hot as he stared at Roman in confusion.

“You, know, pretty money, you just stand there and look pretty and turn a blind eye to whatever I do. Or is that just a Wondry thing?”

“I think it’s just a Wondry thing really, and even if it’s not, it doesn’t exactly apply here.” Virgil gestured at himself.

Roman made a face that Virgil couldn’t interpret and went quiet for a moment. Against his better judgement Virgil let himself hope that maybe Roman was going to lie back and accept his fate. Then he caught the malevolent twinkle in Roman’s eye.

“Hey, Virgil?”  
“Oh God what?”  
“Are you a Disney princess? Cause you’re cinderHella fine!”  
Virgil was sure he’d never turned redder, what was Roman doing? He pulled his hood over his face, trying to cover it up as best as he could.  
“They say a kiss is the language of love. Wanna have a conversation?”  
Oh God make it stop. “Roman,” his wince showed in his voice.

“Oh Virgil,” Roman sang “I know you’re busy today, but can you add me to your to-do list?”  
“Roman!” Virgil had pulled the drawstring of his hoodie so tight he couldn’t see a thing. He had always suspected that it was possible to die of embarrassment, but he hadn’t expected to be testing that theory today. He searched for something, anything, that he could do to stop this that didn’t involve letting Roman leave the infirmary.

“I don't need a spoonful of sugar to swallow you.” Roman wiggled his eyebrows and Virgil had to tell himself that his blush was exclusively from embarrassment.

“Virgil,” Roman’s tone sounded a bit more serious, but Virgil was not about to get his hopes up, “Your clothes are making me uncomfortable, take them off.”

Oh, for pity’s sake! Virgil was about to lose his temper when inspiration struck, it was a terrible idea, but anything was better than this. His head was still reeling from the first awful pick up line.

“OK,” he said mustering all his bravado. He took a deep breath and took his hoodie off. He pulled his shirt off quickly before he could second guess himself. He glanced at Roman nervously.

Roman’s jaw had dropped, and he was staring at Virgil in a way that made him want to cover himself with his arms but that would defeat the purpose. It was taking Roman a lot longer than he expected to notice.

“What the fuck happened to you?” Roman said eventually. There we go, Virgil thought.

Roman sat up in his bad and reached out to touch the scar that ran from just under Virgil’s left armpit to his sternum. Virgil stepped back at the touch and Roman put his hand down apologetically.

I’ll tell you if you stay here without complaining.” Virgil was relieved that his voice didn’t shake. Roman lay back down and Virgil put his clothes back on. Virgil almost hoped that Roman wouldn’t take the deal and would continue his escape attempts, but no such luck. 

Roman looked at Virgil. “I’m not going to force you to tell me.” Roman said when he recognised Virgil’s expression. Virgil waved his concerns off, but his face darkened even more.

“When I came out at school I told two people, I thought they were my friends, Dylan and Lia, and I don’t know who told who but by the end of the day everyone knew. And it’s funny because technically they asked, I didn’t plan on telling them or anything. But then everyone knew, and it became like one of those games. You know the ones schools have. They’d leave me these gross notes and would call me names that I don’t want to repeat.” Virgil saw Roman’s horrified expression.

“Yeah, I didn’t think stuff like that happened anymore either. But I wish that was as bad as it got, but then it went online. I was getting death threats, I had to make a new email address every week and I had no idea who it was. I stopped sleeping and by the time Summer came I was trying to spend as much time as I could away from a computer, so I basically lived at my local library.

“Then mom got promoted and suddenly she’s being targeted too, the first woman to be sergeant general of the US army and she gets treated like crap. But I didn’t really see any of it because I was staying away from the internet. So, I’m on my way home one day and there are these guys outside my house and I don’t know what’s going on. I go to my gate to go inside and one of them comes up to me, he calls me a-, well he calls me the f slur and calls my mom a bitch, then the next thing I know my chest really hurts and he’s running away. They found my address on the internet, someone from school had put one of those sex ads out and put my name and address on it, thinking it was a joke

“He missed my heart by an inch and a half, and my lungs by less. The doctors kept telling me how lucky I was. But I-”

Virgil didn’t get to finish his thought because Roman had pulled himself out of the bed and hugged him. Virgil hadn’t even realised he was crying. 

With the exception of Patton, who hugged people by way of greeting, the way normal people waved, neither of them had been hugged by anyone for a long time. And though neither would ever admit it, it felt good.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw needles and blood

“Roman I have a question for you.” Logan entered the infirmary on Sunday morning with Virgil. Virgil hang back, he’d originally planned on walking down alone, but Logan had decided to accompany him and had promised not to try and engage him in small talk.

 

“Ask away, Logarithm,” Roman seemed cheery this morning.

 

“Can I have some of your blood?”

 

“What the fuck, Logan!” Virgil spoke up before Roman did anything other than raise his eyebrows.

 

“Patton and I have observed that you become more ill after mealtimes and I would like to run a test using liquid chromatography and the mass spectrometer in the chemistry lab.”

 

“You think I’m being poisoned?” Roman’s eyes darted between Virgil and Logan hoping one of them would suddenly burst out with ‘sike!’ but nobody did.

 

“Are you even qualified to take blood?” Virgil asked Logan. Virgil could feel his heart trying to escape his chest, but he ignored it as best he could.

 

“I know the theory and am confident that I can do it relatively painlessly. I don’t mean to disrespect Dr Goldberg’s care but as he isn’t looking for poison he may not know to look for it.”

 

Virgil couldn’t believe Logan, he was either a genius or unbelievably dense, or both, both was seeming more likely by the second. He looked at Roman, hoping to hear a resounding no, but Roman was giving Logan an unreadable look.

 

“I get to see all your results?” Roman asked.

 

“Naturally,” Logan adjusted his glasses.

 

“Then OK.”

 

“OK?” Part of Virgil wanted to go slap some sense into Roman and another part wanted to destroy Logan for even suggesting this.

 

Logan left the room and Virgil just stared at Roman. Was Roman even aware that he was about to let Logan near him with a sharp needle? Logan returned holding said sharp needle.

 

“Have you lost whatever you had that was passing for a mind?” Virgil walked over to Roman and only stopped himself from shaking him by remembering just how unwell Roman was.

 

“Roman please give me your arm.” Logan grabbed his right arm and Roman grabbed it back. Oh, thank goodness he’s come to his senses, Virgil exhaled.

 

“Use my left arm, I’m right-handed.” Roman pulled Logan around to his other side, shoving Virgil out of the way. Logan struggled around the IV line that was in Roman’s hand before he found a good vein in Roman’s elbow.

 

Virgil moved to the foot of the bed and shut his eyes. He couldn’t watch. Wait, yes, he could, he peeked through half-closed eyes which opened completely at Roman’s “Ouch!” which came out as a pitiful whine. Virgil held his breath.

 

Logan clicked something into the needle which filled quickly with blood. Once it was full Logan clicked a beige cap on the vial. When Logan pulled the needle out Roman groaned so slightly that Virgil almost missed it.

 

“Hold this down,” Logan handed Roman some gauze, Roman pressed on it and Logan left the room without further comment. It was weird that Logan’s disinclination to small talk had been so endearing not that long ago.

 

“Are you alright, Virgil?” Roman peered up at him. Virgil could feel his breath coming in slow, long gasps.

 

“Sorry,” Virgil managed to say, “I wasn’t expecting him to . . . just do it.”

 

“I’m sorry, it makes sense that you would hate seeing that, what with everything you’ve been through.”

 

“No, that’s not it, I mean,” Just spit it out, Virgil told himself, but he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be spitting out. “Needles don’t bother me, but I just didn’t like. . .” He let himself trail off. What was he saying? He shook himself, whatever it was, was not the problem at hand.

 

The two of them stared at one another, neither comfortable with the silence but not willing to break it either. Virgil saw that Roman wasn’t applying pressure to his arm anymore. Virgil moved back over to Roman’s side and placed his hand over Roman’s and pushed down. Roman exhaled and started pushing with his left arm onto his right.

 

Well now it would be awkward not to break the silence, Virgil decided. “Why did you agree to that?”

 

“Logan is smart, he’s a pain, but he’s smart enough that I know he wouldn’t hurt me or anything.” Roman wasn’t totally focused, staring past Virgil. “And I like that he just says what he’s thinking, there’s never any second guessing with Logan.” Roman’s eyes became focused and he laughed nervously. “Sorry about that, the Dr Goldberg gave me some medicine for my heart, and its making everything swirl a touch. I’m rambling, aren’t I? Sorry.”

 

“That’s OK, you aren’t embarrassing me beyond my worst nightmares this time so if this is you a bit loopy I can handle it.” Virgil shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down

 

“Hehe, sorry about that too, but it was pretty great, and you go really pink when you’re embarrassed, it looked _glè mhath_.” Roman smiled turned his head so he was looking up at the ceiling.

 

“Princey, what does that even mean?” Virgil asked.

 

“I’ll tell you when you’re older, now if you don’t mind I think I would like to sleep now.” Roman turned himself again so he was facing away from Virgil.

 

“Sweet dreams or whatever, Princey.” Virgil left the infirmary.


	10. Chapter 10

Patton stood at the doorway to the science lab, trying to push himself over the threshold. Everything had been easier when they’d been at a distance, he’d just been Roman’s best friend and Logan’s dorm-mate but with Virgil’s arrival, the four of them had been spending more and more time together and feelings that Patton had put on the backburner were starting to boil over. Part of him wanted to stay in that doorway, watching Logan hard at work, forever. But he couldn’t, not with Roman at stake.

 

“Hi Logan!” He didn’t fight the smile that showed up on his face when Logan turned around, his eyes slightly unfocused, as he analysed the toxicology results.

 

“Hello, Patton.”

 

“I was, um, doing some research and I was reading about cyanide salts and how they don’t change the taste of food. Because I’m sure if it was changing the food taste Roman would have noticed, he used to be a really fussy eater when we were kids.” Patton realised that he was rambling, so he shut his mouth.

 

“I see, did you cross check it with Roman’s symptoms?” Logan had turned to look at him and Patton tried to get his heart rate under control.

 

“I did.”

 

“That’s very astute of you Patton, I shall check the toxicology report.” Logan turned back to the monitor and gasped. He ran at Patton and pulled him over. Patton blushed at the sudden contact, but Logan didn’t seem to notice.

 

“You were right, the cyanide levels are very high, 2.3mg per litre. 3 is enough to kill somebody.”

 

“Oh God! He’ll be OK now, right?”

 

“We only need to make sure he eats something we have prepared from now on and to administer some nitrates, I should be able to find everything we need here.”

 

“Thank you, Logan. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” The words were out before Patton could stop them. Everything was just too much for him in that moment, realising just how close to death Roman was combined with Logan’s dizzying presence, he couldn’t focus on filtering his words when he had so many feelings commandeering his sense.

 

“Patton, are you alright?” Logan moved his hand from Patton’s arm and placed it on his cheek, a tear fell onto Logan’s finger.

 

“Sorry,” said unable to bring himself to pull away.

 

“You don’t need to be upset, now that we know what the problem is Roman will be fine.”

 

“I know, sorry, but it’s horrifying to think how close he came.”

 

“Patton, you pointed out to me that he was always worst after lunch and dinner, you found the poison even before the tox-screen did, unless we were in a parallel universe where Roman’s fate doesn’t matter to you, you would always save him.” It took Patton a second to understand what Logan was saying, but he felt better, and Logan kept talking. “I don’t believe such a universe exists because I cannot fathom circumstances where you would not become the admirably kind, compassionate, and caring person you are today.” Logan stopped talking when he felt Patton’s mouth open in shock.

 

“I-I,” Patton didn’t know what to say, he felt like he was about to jump out of his skin but in the best possible way, “Logan you’re the amazing one, you pieced together that it was poison and you’re always able to take a step back and look at things rationally when everything seems like a mess. I don’t know how you do it.” Patton would have shaken his head at this, but he was scared any movement might make Logan take his hand of his cheek.

 

“Patton, do, I mean, that is to say, um, would you-“ Logan was tongue tied. It was so adorable Patton thought his hear might burst. Well, it was now or never.

 

“Can I kiss you?” Patton asked over Logan’s sputtering.

 

“What? You want to? Um, I-, yes.” Logan finally stopped speaking when Patton’s mouth closed over his. The kiss wasn’t long, and Patton was glad to see that Logan’s face followed his when he pulled away. They both stared at each other for a moment before they remembered that they had a Prince to save. Patton let go and let Logan run around the lab grabbing the chemicals he needed. Once Logan reached the door he held it open for Patton.

 

Did I break Logan? Patton wondered as Logan hadn’t spoken since their kiss. But when Logan cleared his throat, Patton’s concerns were assuaged.

 

“Patton, um, would you perhaps, when Roman’s life isn’t at stake, or anyone’s life for that matter, be interested in perhaps being my boyfriend?” Logan somehow said it all in one breath.

 

Patton felt a beam appear on his face, it refused to relax the muscles he was using, he was just so happy. “Yes! Of course!” Patton pecked Logan on the cheek and grabbed his free hand. Life was pretty good, he had a handsome, intelligent man on his arm and they was going to go save the day.


	11. Chapter 11

“I’m really being poisoned?” Roman knew this was the fifth time he’s asked but he was really hoping this would be the time Logan and Patton told him everything was fine, and they were just pranking him with perfectly forged toxicology reports and really good evidence. OK, so they were telling him the truth, it was just very hard for him to deal with. What was he supposed to say? That’s great! Now that we know someone hates me enough to try to kill me we can all be on our merry way. That wasn’t going to happen. He looked over at the door and pulled out his phone. He found Virgil’s profile on the Foster database and sent him a message: ‘Come to the infirmary.’ Wait that wasn’t very nice, ‘please’ he sent and waited. It wasn’t long before the three small dots that signified that Virgil was typing appeared. ‘Be right there.’ Virgil responded.

 

“Would it be terrible if I wanted to talk about something other than that?” Patton whispered to Roman, gesturing at the toxicology reports.

 

“Please, it would be welcome.” Roman was eager for a distraction.

 

“So,” Patton drew out the word, “While we were in the lab I maybe kinda, sorta kissed Logan.” Patton grinned.

 

“No way!” Roman fought hard to keep his volume under control, Logan was just across the room. “That’s great. About time! What gave you the courage?”

 

“Honestly, it’s stupid, but he said some really nice stuff about me and I realised that maybe he liked me back.” Patton was really red now.

 

“No duh, I’ve been telling you that for three years now.” Roman couldn’t help but smile with Patton, he deserved love in his life, and it was easy enough to ignore the stab of jealousy he felt. He wasn’t jealous of the people involved, just that they could be together, and that they’d been able to get their happy ending. His was just so impossible.

 

When the infirmary door opened Roman jolted his head up and was rewarded with the sight of Virgil. He had an armful of something and a sewing needle in his mouth.

 

“I came here straight from the textiles room.” Virgil said by way of explanation.

 

“Please, like you could do anything straight.” Roman quipped, earning him a smirk. He felt himself relax a bit, and the immediately tense up when he remembered what he now had to tell Virgil. He opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t do it.

 

“What’s up, Princey?” Virgil’s smile was still pulling at the corners of his cheeks, Roman couldn’t ruin that, but lying to Virgil would be even worse, the thought of Virgil’s dark eyes looking at him with the betrayal and hurt he’d seen on them when Virgil had told him about the attack, no he couldn’t do that.

 

“Virgil you might want to sit down for this.” Roman said and immediately the smile was gone, replaced with wariness.

 

“What is it?” Virgil sat hunched over with a bite in his voice.

 

“Logan and Patton found out what’s wrong with me. It’s cyanide poisoning.” Roman spoke quickly, trying to get the words out so he could get Virgil’s reaction over with. It was every bit as bad as he’s feared.

 

Virgil’s eyes went wide, and he leant forwards, his breathing coming hard and fast. “It’s what?” He gasped. But before anyone said anything he continued. “Oh God I tried to stop Logan from testing you, what if you’d listened to me?”

 

“Based on the quantities in his bloodstream he would have had a couple of days to change his mind.” Not helping Logan, Roman thought.

 

“Days?!” Virgil was shaking now. There was a sound from the other door and Dr Goldberg came into the room.

 

“Mr Metry?” He asked Virgil, “Are you alright?”

 

“It’s just a minor panic attack.” Virgil said between shallow breaths, “I’ll be fine once my breathing gets under control.”

 

“Actually, Dr Goldberg, while you’re here there is something I’d like to talk to you abou-“  Logan began when Virgil began hyperventilating. He fell off his chair and was gasping desperately.

 

“Water,” He managed to say, but it was raspy. Roman was really beginning to panic himself when Dr Goldberg left to get Virgil some water. As soon as the door shut behind the doctor Virgil began breathing normally. He sat back up in his chair and grabbed Logan by the tie.

 

“You can’t tell Dr Goldberg. What if he’s the one poisoning Roman? What if he tips off the person so they know that we know, and he decides to off Roman as quickly as possible?” Virgil’s voice was deadly.

 

The door opening had Virgil switching back into a shallow-breathing mess, though he took a few deep breaths in between them now.

 

“Thank you,” He said when Dr Goldberg handed him his glass of water.

 

“Were you saying something, Mr Berry?”

 

“No, um actually yes,” Virgil gave Logan a look. “I was wondering if perhaps I could study how you’re treating Roman, my Independent Project is on human physiology and the immune system, so I would probably benefit a lot from some practical experience.”

 

“Well, I am rather understaffed here, do you have your first aid qualifications?”

 

“Yes, with allergies, asthma, and CPR all up to date.”

 

“Then I suppose it couldn’t hurt.” Doctor Goldberg left the room, probably to check on whoever had managed to injure themselves practicing fencing.

 

“Smart!” Patton hugged Logan, “This way you can give Roman the antidote without anyone noticing.”

 

“That was my plan,” Logan adjusted his glassed and smiled at Patton.

 

“Since when was that a thing?” Virgil mumbled to Roman.

 

“Patton says about twenty minutes ago.” Roman whispered back.

 

“About time.” Virgil rolled his eyes at them.

 

“Hey, I’m the one who’s had to put up with it for years.”

 

Logan grabbed the glass of Roman’s bedside and refilled it. He pulled an aspirator out of his bag and put the mask on Roman. “Breathe deeply,” He instructed. Roman’s breath soon fogged the mask. After about a minute Logan took the aspirator off.

 

“That was amyl nitrate, the first part of cyanide poisoning treatment, the other two parts are intravenous, so I will place them in bags marked as saline and put them in your IV line, One thing I should warn you about; the nitrates will become nitrous oxide in your body which may cause some mental confusion, but it will all be temporary and there should be no long-lasting side effects.” Logan left to go find some IV bags.

 

“Well, that’s reassuring.” Roman chuckled, “At least being stuck here won’t be super boring if the treatment makes me loopy.”

 

When Logan returned with the modified saline bags he swapped the pieces out efficiently. He examined the set up and Roman who was staring at the ceiling lights.

 

“This should be adequate. Dr Goldberg will continue to collect your student meals from the cafeteria, be sure not to eat them. We will bring you alternative meals. You will probably be wanting some rest now.”

 

“Huh?” Roman looked at them dazedly, “OK.”

 

Patton met Virgil’s eye over Roman’s bed, they were in for one hell of a time.

 

Roman wanted to call out to them. Tell them to come back, when Virgil left his chair he felt really empty. He was aware that he was high enough to fight down the pathetic whine that wanted to escape his lips. Why should he even want them to stay so badly. And why was he so obsessed with Virgil? Shouldn’t he be wanting his oldest friend, not the emo who’d just had a panic attack over him? And why did Virgil’s concern for him make him feel better than even the nitrous? Oh crap. He was in love. In love with that angsty, ridiculous, edgy, overly-critical, over-thinking, beauty. Dammit! He was going to have to squash this before he ended up saying something he was going to regret, especially with how loopy he could feel himself getting.


	12. Chapter 12

It was becoming a hallmark of Virgil’s life at Foster Academy that despite all his planning and thinking ahead, certain things still managed to surprise him, and that at the core of all those certain things was Roman. 

He’d gone to their dorm and grabbed the lunch Patton had made for Roman. Virgil had volunteered since he didn’t have to go to sport and had a free period after it, so he had plenty of time. He had his textiles project in his bag and was ready for chill, slightly out of it Roman. What he got was the biggest drama queen he had ever seen.

He opened the door to Roman standing on his bed trying to touch the ceiling lights, which would have been endearing if the ceiling lights weren’t still about sixteen feet above his head.

“Virgil!” Roman yelled as Virgil approached, “Have you seen the lights? They’re swirly. Watch.” Roman moved his hand at the lights weirdly, probably trying to mimic the swirls that only he could see. 

Virgil took a deep breath, this was going to be weird. “Hey Roman, come down so you can eat your food. Patton made you lunch.” He lifted the tupperware in his hand. Patton had bulk made an obscene amount of pasta so Roman could eat something that wasn’t poisoned.

Roman sat down agreeably enough and let Virgil put the pasta on his lap. He lifted the cutlery and ate messily. The pasta must have been delicious because Roman basically inhaled it. To Virgil’s relief Roman picked up a napkin and cleaned himself, Virgil shuddered to think how awkward it would have been to wipe the food off Roman’s face like he was a little kid. Ugh, the idea just felt wrong.

“Roman, how high are you?” Virgil asked.

“Silly Virgil, it’s ‘Hi, how are you?’” Roman giggled but stopped suddenly, “I know I’m acting silly but it easier to just go with it than to be all sad and worried about what I’m saying and if I’m doing it right. Bonk.” Roman poked Virgil’s nose and laughed. “I’m really tired but too much is happening for me to move and it’s nice to just enjoy this. All I have to do is not say my secret and everything will be fine.”

“What secret?” Virgil asked, suddenly very curious, but it would be wrong to push Roman into telling him, right? Especially like this.

“Shhhhhh,” Roman lazily put a finger to his lips, “It’s a secret and I can’t tell you. Nobody knows.” Roman was leaning off the bed, barely five inches from Virgil’s lap. 

It was a lot, Virgil was trying very hard to keep his emotions in check, Roman was out of his mind right now, no matter how bizarrely lucid he’d seemed earlier, he wasn’t going to use the state he was in to learn secrets and he certainly wasn’t going to let Roman sit about in his lap and-. Nope, Virgil wasn’t even going to open those thoughts. The thought of Roman coming to and remembering Virgil taking advantage of him while he was high, he could picture the careful mask Roman would put on to hide his hurt, betrayal, but the way his disgust at Virgil would leak out around the edges. Not to mention how Virgil would feel about himself, he’d never do anything like that. 

But he couldn’t bring himself to leave either. Patton had told him how much Roman hated being alone. Virgil supposed growing up in a palace meant Roman had never gotten used to solitude.

“I’m going to do my sewing now,” Virgil told Roman who seemed to be having a wrestling match with his sheets.

“But what about me?” Roman whined slightly.

“I’ll be right here, you can say something if you need me.” Virgil pulled his sewing out of his bag, keeping half an eye on Roman who seemed to have tired himself out. He was glad Roman was resting, although he sort of wanted him to stay awake. Virgil shook himself, that was ridiculous, Roman was far easier to deal with asleep. And he looked peaceful, about time, with everything that was happening to him, Roman deserved a break.

Virgil finished tightening his embroidery hoop and pulled out his thread. This was his fourth attempt at the embroidery portion of his minor project. The stitches were supposed to look messy and chaotic but every time he zoned out they went back to his usual, small, tidy stitches. It was a silly thing to get so fussed over, after all, how could he be too good at sewing for a project, but it just felt like a reminder that he couldn’t let himself lose control and enjoy himself even for a moment. He envied Roman, being able to make the conscious choice to just enjoy when everything was a mess, instead of frantically trying to pick up the pieces.

Virgil had to admit that he admired Roman, he was able to be so confident despite barely having a plan. He had a mountain of responsibilities on his shoulders and never backed down from facing them, no matter how stupid his plan for facing them was. He was the most princely person Virgil could imagine.

Virgil’s understanding of Wondry itself wasn’t great. He had the problem so many people born in the US have, where he knew a lot about his own country, but very little about others. Stupid messed up education system. Still he wanted to see how Roman would run his country. Even bound by constitution, the monarchy in Wondry had a pretty decent amount of power, Roman would be able to do wonderful things. He probably open about one hundred new theatres all over the tiny island and fine arts students from all over the world would flock there. And if Wondry could have an openly gay king . . . Something like that would have meant the world to Virgil growing up. It was all just a stupid fantasy anyway, it wasn’t like he was going to see Roman be king, or have anything to do with it, and Roman really didn’t seem to feel safe coming out, which in Virgil’s opinion was a big mood. 

As though Virgil’s thoughts were waking him up, Roman rubbed his eyes and sat up.

“Hello sunshine,” He laughed at Virgil, sounding a bit more sober.

“Hey there, Princey, you seem a bit more awake.” Virgil made himself stay in the moment, pushing his daydreams out of his mind.

“Yeah, though everything’s still a little swirly. Wow your eyes are really brown.” Roman was leaning towards him again. Virgil looked down, embarrassed, and fortunately, Roman noticed this and stopped, having the decency to blush. “Sorry, guess I’m still a little out of it.”

“No worries,” Virgil mumbled, still not looking up.

“I’m going to try to sleep some more of this off.” Roman lay back down.

“OK, I might be in English when you wake up, but I’ll be back with the others after.” Virgil went back to his sewing.

“Is that your textiles project?” Roman asked, craning his neck off the pillow.

“Just my minor one, I still haven’t figured out my major one yet.”

“Well I like it.” Roman declared, “It look edgy-licious.” Roman laughed as he realised how ridiculous he sounded. “What am I saying? I blame the nitrous.”

“Yeah,” Virgil looked back up and laughed with Roman, “I guess it is pretty edgy,” He chuckled as he said it, shaking his head at Roman.

They smiled at each-other and Roman turned over to sleep. Virgil tried to focus on his sewing. Still, he couldn’t quite squish down the dream. It was like a fire he just couldn’t put out, dreams like that only ever hurt him, but nothing he did made it burn any less brightly. Virgil just prayed it would fizzle out on its own instead of burning him alive.


	13. Chapter 13

Ugh. Virgil woke with a start, tired of his own mind turning against him. Roman’s life was literally at stake and all he could do was moon after him with his stupid crush. It had been like this for the entire week, he’d be away from Roman during his classes where he could get over it all, and although he was aware of his feelings they didn’t take over his life; but at mealtimes and during his frees he was in the infirmary, and even the slightest hint of affection from Roman made everything go into overdrive. Ever since he’d admitted to himself that he had these (ugh) feelings they’d become even stronger, or maybe they’d always been that strong, and he’d just been ignoring them.

 

He groaned loudly into his pillow. This was so not the time to be thinking about his attraction to Roman. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. Until he got over this stupid crush he was going to have to keep himself on a tight leash, no daydreaming, no staring, and definitely no extended periods of time alone with Roman.

 

“Virgil?” Logan’s voice came through the door, “Patton says he heard you um, vocalise unhappiness earlier, is everything alright?”

 

“No,” Virgil said, immediately clapping a hand over his mouth. Why had he said that? It was true, but he didn’t need to involve Logan and Patton into this mess.

 

Patton and Logan burst through the door.

 

“That’s no good kiddo, what’s bothering you?” Patton was hugging Virgil in seconds. Virgil tolerated this for a bit, the squirmed his way out.

 

“I don’t suppose there’s any way you guys can just pretend I said ‘yes, I’m fine’ and we can go about our lives like this never happened?” Virgil already knew the answer but a guy could dream.

 

“Not on your life,” Patton said, ruffling Virgil’s hair.

 

“Careful,” Virgil joked, “You’ll make Logan jealous.”

 

“Preposterous,” Logan said, sitting on the end of Virgil’s bed, “and your attempt to change the subject was very obvious.” Well, so much for that tactic, Virgil thought glumly.

 

“It’s just-“ Virgil really didn’t want to lie to them. Lies were a mess, they twisted around themselves, got confused, and they ruined people and lost trust. “Roman.” He said finally.

 

“His treatment is proceeding well, he has shown marked improvement. What is the problem?” Logan was giving Virgil the look that was usually reserved for particularly difficult math problems.

 

“Logan,” Patton smiled, “That’s not the problem here, is it, Virgil?” Patton was giving Virgil a knowing smile that was nearly as infuriating as Logan’s math look.

 

Virgil rolled his eyes and mumbled his “no,” as unintelligibly as he could.

 

“So, you . . .” Patton leaned into Virgil, clearly trying to get him to finish the phrase.

 

“Don’t make me say it!” Virgil pressed his face into his pillow.

 

“This makes no sense to me.” Logan shook his head at the other two, “Will either or both of you be accompanying me to the infirmary now of will you continue this,” Logan put his fingers up and made air quotes, a surprisingly juvenile gesture for him, “’D and M sesh’ as it were?”

 

Patton looked closely at Virgil, “We could always go down later if you don’t feel up to it now.”

 

Virgil was tempted but the stupid part of him that was already running through matching Halloween costumes (gross, the still-same part of him thought) tugged at Virgil to go. Some stolen time with Roman, even if Roman had no idea what it meant to Virgil, would be worth it. So even though Virgil knew he was essentially agreeing to getting his heart broken, he said, “No worries, Pat, I’m good, let’s go.”

 

Roman smiled when he saw them enter the infirmary. ‘Don’t,’ Virgil told his heart as it began to do flips in his chest.

 

“It’s a veritable party,” Roman hugged Patton back and sat up. “Well, Logan I have to say, your treatment worked, you have a bright future ahead of you as the royal physician of Wondry.”

 

“And have you as my patient all the time? I’ll stick to my research, thanks.” But Logan grinned a little as he said it. He checked Roman’s ‘saline’ and announced, “the treatment is well and truly finished, you’re officially cured.”

 

“What a shame,” Roman put a hand to his head and sighed, “I’ll miss being high off my face on nitrous all the time.” Roman seemed very relieved under his melodramatic façade. Virgil shuddered to think how awful he would feel, out of control like that, for a week.

 

“I’m just glad you can come back to the dorm, I’ve missed you!” Patton hugged Roman again.

 

“I’ve missed you too, Patton.” Roman smiled and hugged Patton back.

 

“No!” Virgil said, and this time he’s said that word aloud on purpose. The other three turned identical shocked expressions at him.

 

“Think!” Virgil implored them, “If Roman magically gets better what’s the poisoner going to think? ‘Oh well I guess he’s immune to poison, better lay off him now’,” Virgil mocked. “No! He’s going to try again, and something crazier next time. You need to stay sick, or at least convince the poisoner that you are.” Virgil looked at them wildly. The part of him that was head over heels for Roman and the part that understood that Roman’s life was in danger had just collided and Virgil was desperately trying to keep his plans ahead of his racing fears. He couldn’t sit by and watch Roman put himself in danger, not with his life on the line.

 

“Logan, you understand reality better than them, surely you can see that I’m right?” Virgil looked at Logan imploringly.

 

“Your hypothesis has merit,” Logan said, “We cannot guarantee Roman’s total safety under any circumstances, but it is more likely that we can lull the perpetrator into a false sense of security and use this as an opportunity to get one step ahead to plan a superior next move.” Virgil sighed with relief. Patton would side with Logan and there was no way Roman would be able to argue with all three of them on this.

 

“I suppose it’s about time I put my acting skills to god use,” Roman said with bravado, “How’s this?” He lay on the bed limply, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

 

Virgil did not stare at that tongue for way longer than was acceptable, at least, that’s what he told himself.

 

“Don’t be silly,” Patton said, “When you were sick you were doing your best not to be, you need to act sick and then act like you’re not sick on top of that.”

 

“That’s awfully meta,” Virgil commented.

 

Roman tried again, flopping himself back onto the bed then slowly, achingly pushing himself up on a shaky arm, his breathing laboured.

 

“Better,” Patton said.

 

“You were breathing faster than that,” Virgil said, “And you were always dizzy so don’t look in the same spot for too long.” Roman arched an eyebrow at this but took Virgil’s advice, he was eerily convincing.

 

Once Roman was satisfied that he had it perfect he smiled invited them to surround him with the latest gossip. “Please, I’m so bored here, regale me with tales more interesting than my predicament!” He commanded.

 

“Well, I hear Remy’s having a wild time in college, there were some great pictures on twitter, but obviously I couldn’t post anything from us since we aren’t allowed.” Patton said.

 

“Who’s Remy?” Virgil asked.

 

“Oh,” Roman said grandly, ‘Remy Baldwin was the greatest, he graduated last year, and he was just the best.” Roman trailed off wistfully.

 

“He was more ‘extra’ that you and Roman combined,” Logan was back at it with the air quotes, and his statement earned him a “Hey!” from both Roman and Virgil.

 

“I wish we were allowed to message people outside the school’s network, but the whole privacy policy thing means no saying hi,” Patton sighed. “I’m pretty sure it was Roman’s goal to become Remy back when we were freshmen.”

 

“What’s with all the ganging up on me?” Roman asked, “I am my fabulous self - no one else – and don’t you dare forget it!” Virgil laughed along with the others, quashing the butterflies in his stomach and trying to enjoy himself.


	14. Chapter 14

Roman wished he could be bored. Or, at the very least, shut his mind off for a few minutes, just long enough to get to sleep. But instead his thoughts swirled darkly around him, positing reasons why someone might want him dead. The ones that were about Wondry he could deal with, people wanting his place as heir or to dismantle the monarchy altogether, plots like that were easy for him to think around, to understand. But the other ones, the ones that were about him, the real him, hurt far more than he cared to admit. Did someone hate him enough to kill him? Evidently, yes. But was it his fault? Was it something Roman had done? Or was it just the circumstances of his birth?

 

And if it was his fault, then what had tipped the person over the edge? He knew he could be annoying: He was too loud, he talked too much, he was too dramatic, he could be selfish, and he lived for the spotlight, often going as far as to steal it from other people. Did he have to die for that? But every time he tried to change, to make himself better, he just ended up miserable. Patton always told him there was a way to strike a balance, between who he was and who he was supposed to be, but what if there wasn’t one?

 

He felt terrible because he liked it. Roman liked being loud and dramatic, in the moment it made him feel alive, and like he could take on anything. But when the criticism came, and it always came, he’d see what a terrible person he was and wish he could change. But he couldn’t. Not without giving up his happiness. And he was selfish, right? So why not just embrace it and be selfish about this too?

 

Roman stared at the ceiling and sighed. It was going to be a long night.

 

The sun had long been streaming in through the windows by the time Roman was awoken by his friends. He could vaguely remember finally falling asleep at the crack of dawn, his muscles, stiff and aching, protested his getting up to great everyone but he didn’t care. Once Patton had released him he sat back down on the bed.

 

“Bad news:” Roman said, “After you left yesterday, Dr Goldberg checked me over and said I was good to go.” He looked at four concerned faces, “It’s not my fault, I can’t fake my heart rate and blood pressure!” He protested before continuing, “ I pretended to faint after that so he’ll keep me here a few more days but we need a plan and we need one fast. Any ideas?”

 

Logan spoke up. “The obvious question is who did it? So we need to find a way to catch the culprit or lure them out. Does anyone have any clue who it could be? I checked the Foster database for people with ties to Wondry, but my search didn’t reveal any obvious culprits.”

 

“There’s that guy – Damen – who filmed us in Drama class,” Patton said softly. Roman looked over at Virgil who was sitting in his usual chair, face hidden by his hood.

 

“Do you really think he’d kill me over that?” Roman asked Patton.

 

“I don’t know. Whoever it is can’t exactly be a good person, and he’s the only person I’ve seen do anything really wrong to you this year.” Patton, who was sitting on the bed beside Roman, looked down, clearly not enjoying the conversation.

 

“That’s really not enough evidence for us to claim that it’s him.” Logan deliberated and then gasped, he looked up suddenly, a gleam in his eye. “That’s it!” He cried jumping out of his chair.

 

“What’s it?” Virgil asked warily.

 

“Potassium ferric hexacyanoferrate! If we cover all the food preparation materials with it, then the person who touches cyanide will turn blue. It’s perfect.”

 

Roman felt a tug of nervousness, did he really want to find out who was doing this? What if he didn’t like the answer? No, he told himself firmly, he needed to know, even if just to stop the troubling speculation that raced around his head. He couldn’t keep living like this, hiding in the infirmary, dying of boredom and constantly left alone. He had to do something, and taking action, taking control of his life, was exactly what he needed. He nodded at Logan.

 

“You can’t be serious!” Virgil burst out, his hood falling off his head as he stood up, revealing his dread-filled eyes. “You can’t just put Roman at risk like that! You’ll tip off the poisoner, and then what’s to stop them from finishing the job? You can’t just throw around Roman’s life like that.”

 

“I think,” Roman felt himself say, he felt like someone was stirring a pot of soup in his chest, “I can make that decision. And I want to know. I’m sick of hiding here while someone tries to control me.”

 

“So, you’re just going to risk yourself ‘cause you’re bored?”

 

“It’s my life.” Roman said defensively, “Why do you care so much anyway, Brad Pitt-iful?”

“Because I love you so shut the hell up!”

 

The room was disturbingly silent. Roman couldn’t think, not properly anyway. It was like his thoughts were coming in flashes. Virgil had been angry and afraid, Roman realised. Because he loves you, his thoughts echoed back. Virgil had told him about his attack, and trusted him with that information, _because he loves you_. Virgil had stayed with him, whenever he could, even using his doctors note to get out of sport, _because he loves you_.

 

Once Roman had managed to process that thought his world exploded in to colour. Virgil loves me, he thought, Virgil loves me back.

 

All of this happened in Roman’s head in a split second. He looked up at Virgil who was covering his mouth, his eyes darting around the room, plotting the fastest way to the door. Roman realised he would have to choose his words very carefully if he was going to prevent Virgil from running away out of fear. This would be so much easier if Patton and Logan weren’t in the room

 

“Virgil, don’t run.” He said, and Virgil looked at him, his eyes searching Roman’s face frantically. “Please sit back down.” Virgil hesitated and looked at the door again. Oh God, he looked like he might cry, and the sight made Roman’s heart clench.

 

Roman took a deep breath, “I love you too, please sit down.” Virgil sat and looked at Roman, his eyes still searching Roman’s face.

 

“Well, Logan I think we should go to the lab now,” Patton grabbed Logan’s arm and began pulling him out of the room.

 

“But-“ Logan protested but was cut off.

 

“Now.” Patton said, dragging Logan out of the room, leaving Roman and Virgil alone.

 

“Why?” Virgil’s voice was almost a whisper.

 

“Why what?” Roman asked, he felt very out of his depth. He’d always thought he would be debonair and suave when the time came to confess his feelings to someone (assuming the time ever came), not this mess, trying desperately to keep Virgil in the room with him because the idea of having to be anywhere without Virgil, or at least without knowing that Virgil wanted to be with him, was unbearable.

 

“Why would you like me?” Virgil said, “I’m mean, I shut down your ideas, I don’t like people paying attention to me. It doesn’t make any sense.

 

“I disagree,” Roman said, “You aren’t mean, and the other stuff is fine. Look, sometimes I need someone to keep me on the ground. And, the way I see it,” Roman tried to lighten the atmosphere, “I get all the attention for myself, so it doesn’t bother me.” Virgil gave Roman a sceptical look. “Really, I could ask you the same question, why would you like me? I don’t even know who I am, and what I do know isn’t good, so how can you know who I am and still love me?”

 

Virgil’s familiar smirk returned. He looked at Roman, “You’re serious?” His eyebrows raised when Roman nodded. “You’re brave. So unbelievably brave. And yes, it borders on stupid sometimes, but it’s still you. And you make things your own: everything from your responsibilities as Prince to your drama projects. Nobody could ever come close.” Virgil finished and eyed at Roman again, the searching look was back.

 

“Virgil,” Roman began, he knew he had to say this aloud first, and give Virgil the opportunity to stop him, “in a moment, I am going to stand up and kiss you. Unless you tell me you don’t want me to, in which case I won’t get angry.” Roman looked back at Virgil who gave Roman a tiny nod and mumbled something with an ‘i:’ sound.

 

“What was that?” Roman asked. He didn’t want to do something Virgil didn’t want him to do.

 

“Please,” Virgil said, his voice still so low that Roman barely caught it.

 

“Please do what?” Roman was relieved and allowed some teasing into his voice.

 

“Please kiss me already, you ass,” Virgil said, his trademark snarky tone returning.

 

Not needing to be asked again Roman bounded up from his bed and closed his mouth over Virgil’s. They clashed together awkwardly before settling into a rhythm, staying locked together. Even when breathing became an issue they were reluctant to part, but Virgil, ever the more sensible of the two, reminded himself that there wouldn’t be more kissed if they both died here, so he unwillingly pulled away.

 

“Are you alright?” Roman asked Virgil breathily.

 

“Yeah,” Virgil breathed back. “better than alright.” They both smiled at this.

 

“So if I were to do this,” Roman placed a hand on Virgil’s cheek and pulled him closer again, “that would be good?”

 

“Very,” Virgil agreed, closing the remaining distance between them.


	15. Chapter 15

It was after dinner by the time Patton and Logan returned to the infirmary Roman and Virgil had managed to drag themselves apart. They were talking quietly, Roman’s hand just barely running over Virgil’s back.

 

“Is now an OK time to come back?” Patton asked, smiling broadly as he opened the door.

 

“Yeah, sure.” Virgil said, “Thanks for abandoning me back there.” He added sarcastically, dragging his eyes away from Roman.

 

“Judging by your swollen lips and enlarged pupils, I have no doubt regarding what you were just doing. So, I maintain that we were right to leave.” Logan said matter-of-factly sitting down with a container of potassium ferric hexacyanoferrate. “I assume you came to the correct conclusion.”

 

Virgil looked at the container then back to Roman. Their eyes met and they seemed to re-hash the conversation they’d had before Virgil’s outburst had derailed the situation.

 

“Are you sure?” Virgil finally said aloud.

 

“Yes. Is that OK?” Roman asked, watching Virgil closely.

 

“Sure, whatever.”

 

“Excellent.” Logan said, his patience for their romantic nonsense was wearing thin, thank goodness he and Patton weren’t like that. “I will begin by covering everything in the cafeteria with a light layer of this, I’ll also cover Roman, if that’s alright with you,” he added to Roman.

 

“It’s not poisonous, is it?” Virgil asked, tensing up.

 

“No, it’s actually very good for the human body.” Logan said, and Virgil relaxed, leaning back into Roman’s hand.

 

Roman laughed slightly, “Dust me like one of your French girls, calculator watch,” he said, mock-seductively.

 

Logan just rolled his eyes and pulled out a kabuki brush, he opened the lid of the container to reveal a bright blue powder that disappeared entirely as he patted it onto Roman’s limbs and face, meaning Roman had to let go of Virgil which he did with a pitiful expression. Intentionally Logan left Roman’s torso free for propriety’s sake.

 

“There.” Logan said.

 

“That’s it?” Roman looked down at himself, as though waiting for some kind of magical transformation to occur.

 

“It will turn a colour called ‘Prussian blue’ which stains. The perpetrator will likely have some cyanide on their hands or gloves, so when we see the blue stain we will know who has been in contact with cyanide. It’s actually a very interesting phenomenon-”

 

“Logan, we should go do the kitchen!” Patton interrupted, once again hurrying himself and Logan out of the room.

 

“Patton, why do you keep doing that, surely they want to understand why this plan will work?”

 

“They trust you to know how it works, besides, they have a lot to talk about.” Patton smiled again, and Logan focused on adjusting his tie to ignore the circus that was going on in his stomach.

 

“Are you referring to their new romantic relationship?” Logan said the words ‘romantic relationship’ the way normal people said the words ‘faeces’ or ‘cockroach’.

 

“Don’t be so hard on them. After all, without ‘romantic relationships’,” Patton used air quotes, “where would _we_ be?”

 

Logan sighed loudly, but a faint smile curved up the side of his mouth. Patton kissed Logan’s dimples and opened the door to the kitchens. Officially speaking, Patton shouldn’t have had access to this part of the school, as it was labelled ‘staff only’ in big, red, letters. But Patton’s love of late-night cooking had lead him to discover that the screw on the bottom of the electronic lock was falling out, and if he twisted it the right way, the door would unlock. Anyway, it wasn’t like Patton was breaking into the kitchen for nefarious purposes, he’d been doing it since he was a sophomore and all he’d ever done was grab extra ingredients.

 

Logan handed Patton another kabuki brush and they began dusting the potassium ferric hexacyanoferrate all over the surfaces. The food trays, the ladles, the handles on the pots and pans, were all coated in an invisibly-thin layer of the blue powder.

 

“Oh! Logan!” Patton said, patting Logan on the arm excitedly. ”What if we put the powder in the glove dispensers and shake them, that way and even coat should end up on all the gloves inside!”

 

“Good idea,” said Logan passing Patton one of the glove dispensers.

 

“Did I make you proud, Logan? You proud of me?” Patton asked sweetly.

 

“You really need to chill,” Logan said, but he couldn’t hide his smile.

 

By the time they were finished it was nearly night time.

 

“We should probably return to our dorm.” Logan said. Patton made a strange noise, that started as a ‘mmhmm’ of agreement but became a question. “What?” Logan asked softly.

 

“Well, I was just thinking that maybe tonight we could stay in the infirmary. We could grab some our duvets and bring in some of the other hospital beds and stay with Roman.” Patton sped up at Logan’s confused look. “Because Virgil isn’t going to want to leave tonight and I want to make sure Roman’s OK, and I just want to spend some time with you guys, you know?”

 

“To be honest with you, I don’t know,” Logan said, but he hastily corrected himself when Patton’s face fell, “but I do enjoy spending time with you and if this will make you happy then I am more than willing to participate.”

 

Patton’s smile returned. “OK, I’ll message Virgil, so he can give us permission to grab his stuff, and we can go do that now.”

 

Patton texted like he talked, with excessive enthusiasm. Logan no longer had to tell himself that he didn’t find it endearing and simply allowed himself to enjoy the new sensations that came with the activation of his central dopamine pathways and vasopressin in the ventral pallidum along with the added oxytocin in the nucleus accumbens and paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus. Logan found sensations were most enjoyable.

 

The four of them stayed in the infirmary that night in what Roman called ‘glamping’ style. They took turns charging their phones and using them to watch funny videos online, using a projector Logan made using a box and some magnifying glasses. And although Logan was frustrated that he didn’t entirely understand the warm, comforting feeling that seemed to envelope all four of them, he had to admit that it was nice.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw for 1x homophobic asshole

Virgil couldn’t focus on schoolwork. Not today, when every time he saw even a flash of blue his head would whip around, and his heart would try to beat out of his chest. He found himself staring at the hands of everyone who passed him, examining them for any touch of blue. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Dalia, who had painted her nails blue.

 

By the time French class had come around Virgil couldn’t stop moving: If his leg wasn’t bouncing, then he was pulling on the drawstring of his hoodie, or he was pulling at his sleeves. Patton put an arm around him gently.

 

“It’s OK,” he said, “Just breathe,” Virgil took a deep breath and leaned into Patton.

 

“What would I do without you?” Virgil laughed.

 

“Panic yourself into a right mess, probably.” Patton hugged Virgil and handed him a cookie under the table. With his free hand Patton put a finger to his lips, the message was clear, ‘eat the cookie, even though we aren’t supposed to have food in classes.’

 

Virgil faked a yawn and fed himself the cookie with the hand he used to cover his mouth. He looked around the room and nearly choked. Damen, the guy from Roman and Patton’s drama class had just walked in. Virgil watched him closely, examining every inch of him for a sign of blue pigment, his heart was pounding in his ears as he did so, completely oblivious to whatever Patton was doing beside him. The more Virgil looked, the stronger the sinking feeling in his chest grew. There was nothing on him. There went their number one suspect.

 

“What are you looking at, perv?” And Damen had noticed his staring, great. Virgil’s instinct here was to go quiet and say nothing, he was used to this after all. But if he took it, then Roman, Patton, and Logan would have to take it too, and he would never let them be on the receiving end of the shit he’d been through. He knew what Roman would do, he’d probably hit on the guy, say something about how Damen had only noticed his staring due to his own desire. Yeah, Virgil wasn’t about to do that, but it did give him an idea.

 

“Please, who’d bother perving on you?” He said, plastering his trademark sneer across his face, “I’ve seen lamp posts with more sex appeal.” Damen blushed and fell silent, taking his seat at the back of the classroom sulkily. Patton stared at Virgil wide-eyed.

 

“That wasn’t very nice,” Patton said.

 

“I’m not very nice,” Virgil retorted, his cold fury just beginning to subside.

 

“That’s not true!” Patton said, dragging Virgil into another hug, “And I’m not mad, I understand why you did what you did, I just think there was probably a nicer way to have done it.”

 

Once French was over they made their way down to the infirmary. As badly as Virgil wanted to see Roman he couldn’t help but dread going to see him, the thought of Roman, his eyes alight waiting for news until Virgil extinguished his hope, made him feel worse than he already did.

 

Logan had beaten them there, they both smiled as Patton and Virgil entered. That just made Virgil feel worse, they were all so happy to see him and he was just going to disappoint them. He had to say it soon of how awful he felt would overwhelm him.

 

“Sorry!” He said quickly, hoping they wouldn’t be too upset, “I looked all morning as best as I can but I can’t see any blue on anyone, I saw Damen earlier but-“ Virgil only paused to draw breath, but as he did so he looked around, he couldn’t read any of their expressions. He fell silent, he’d gotten the point across, no point showing them what a blubbering mess he was.

 

“Virgil,” the softness of Roman’s voice made it more painful. Virgil swallowed, this was stupid, why was he so upset? He already knew he was a failure, why was the proof so hard to face? Virgil shut his eyes, trying to shake the toxic thoughts out of his head, and when he opened them Roman was standing in front of his, arms outstretched. Virgil knew it was selfish, surely Roman was the one who was hurt the most by his lack of news, but he couldn’t make himself care. He was selfish, so what?

 

He leant into Roman’s embrace, the warmth of Roman’s skin made him feel braver. He burrowed his head under Roman’s neck and focused on matching his breathing with Roman’s. After several moments Roman whispered to Virgil. “You have nothing to be sorry about, you’re out there looking, you’re trying, I’ve just been in here doing a whole lot of nothing.”

 

Virgil huffed a laugh into Roman’s collar. “You know why you can’t-, besides who would stay and keep me from having panic attacks if you were snooping?” Virgil went for bravado, but it was brittle, like any challenge would send him right back to barely being able to breathe.

 

“Besides,” Logan said, “It’s only just lunch time, it is possible our poisoner hasn’t yet made another attempt on Roman’s life.” When Logan spoke, Virgil looked up and saw that Patton had planted himself in Logan’s lap and was separating the lunches he had made for the four of them into bowls.

 

“Here you go,” Patton held two bowls out to Roman and Virgil and they took them. Virgil felt so embarrassed, his panic seemed really over the top now. But he couldn’t really do anything about it now, and they were all acting normal, they didn’t seem like they hated him now, despite what the little voice in his head said. He breathed deeply and sat down on the floor next to Roman, leaning into him slightly. Just keep breathing, he told himself, everything will be OK.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw making out  
> salt_n_burn didn't want to read this chapter because its gross

Once lunch had ended, Patton and Logan made their way to swimming without Virgil. He had once been so keen to go to his sport class, even though he really wasn’t up for any real physical activity, just to seem normal. But he’d thrown normal out the window by falling in love with Roman. The guy was a literal prince for pity’s sake! And he’d been drawn in to this poisoning plot like he was some kind of storybook hero. If he had any sense he would have gone back to his room and ignored all of it ages ago, but in that universe, Roman would have drawn attention to his recovery and gotten himself killed. Maybe Virgil could live with being an idiot, if it meant Roman was always around to be a much bigger and more dramatic idiot.

 

Roman got up and headed back to the hospital bed, he scooted to the side once he was on it, patting the space beside him as an invitation to Virgil. Virgil ignored the blush that was threatening and sat down next to Roman. He was warm. For someone with a reputation for being quite a flirt, Roman was being very gentle with Virgil. He felt like Roman knew that Virgil wasn’t one to trust right away and was letting Virgil open up to him in his own time. They’d definitely rushed into this, and Virgil was waiting for the moment Roman would realise that they couldn’t work together, because no one would really want to wait for him like this. Roman was like flame, he burned bright and powerfully, and Virgil could only hope that Roman could slow his burning down enough for him to catch up.

 

“You’re overthinking something aren’t you?” Roman said, looping his arm under Virgil hoodie slowly, giving Virgil plenty of time to shut him down, but Virgil leaned into his touch instead.

 

“Yeah,” Virgil said, allowing a small smile to push through his fearful mood.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Roman’s voice was soft.

 

“Not yet,” Virgil said, he knew he was pushing Roman away by saying that, that maybe this would be what turned Roman against him, but he hoped that Roman might just understand, just maybe.

 

“Would you like me to distract you?” Roman asked, his voice still soft, and his arm still holding Virgil close. Virgil swallowed and nodded, he guiltily realised he wasn’t giving Roman enough credit, Roman knew what he was getting into.

 

“Good,” Roman said, in his usual showy voice, “I think you’ll find I can be quite distracting,” he gave Virgil a wink. Virgil gave a snort which became a full-blown laugh very quickly. It was true, Roman was very distracting in his attractiveness, but he was so ridiculous that Virgil really didn’t know what else to do. He laughed at Roman’s absurdity and Virgil’s own for being attracted to him.

 

“I feel as if I should be offended by that,” Roman said, “but your laugh is just too beautiful.” Roman moved so that he was in front of Virgil, his face was so close that Virgil stopped laughing. Roman raised his eyebrows in question. Virgil gave a small nod and Roman closed the gap between them. This, Virgil thought, is one hell of a distraction. He’d spent a lot of time in hospital beds, to the point where he really ought to swear off them altogether for several years just to get back to a normal average, but this had to be the best time by far: Neither of them was injured or sick and they just got to enjoy whatever it was between them. Romance was gross, sexual attraction was gross, but gross in the same way sticking your head under a chocolate fountain was, off-putting and a terrible idea, but very, very enjoyable.

 

Virgil leaned back into Roman’s arm and Roman lowered him carefully, so his back was on the bed. Their lips only came apart so they could catch their breath, as soon as their lungs felt full they were right back on each other.

 

There was a slight creaking noise and they both immediately pulled away, looking at the door to the office, the handle of which was definitely turning. Virgil, mortified, half-fell half-jumped off the bed. He grabbed the nearest chair and sat down just as the door opened. Roman was trying to squirm under the sheets they’d just been kissing on top of.

 

“Mr Metry, don’t you have class?” Doctor Goldberg asked with a slight smirk on his face that made Virgil hide under his hood.

 

“It’s sport class, Dr Goldberg,” Roman said, his voice breathier than usual but otherwise normal, “Virgil didn’t feel up to it and decided to keep me company.”

 

“Yes, I can see that.” Doctor Goldberg said, the amusement in his tone making Virgil want to melt through the floor.

 

“Well Roman, I just came here to let you know that unless your condition deteriorates again you’ll be back in classes by the end of this week, though I would like to do another echo-cardiograph at some point to ensure it isn’t a heart condition.”

 

“No worries, Doc,” Roman gave Doctor Goldberg a shit-eating grin, which just made the doctor sigh and turn around to leave.

 

As soon as the door closed Virgil let out a huge groan. “Why?” He drew the word out for several seconds.

 

Roman laughed, “It’s alright, I bet he’s seen worse. Wait no! I’m sure he’s seen worse. Last year Remy told me that this couple gave each other-“ Roman finger spelled S,T and I at Virgil.

 

“You know ASL?” Virgil asked, not wanting to think too hard about what Roman had just told him.

 

“I can fingerspell and count to ten, so not really,” Roman said, uncharacteristically modest.

 

“I’ll teach you some,” Virgil said, he’d learned it because it was easier to sign than to talk sometimes and it had made for a good distraction in school, it could be nice to have someone to sign with.

 

They talked until it was time for Virgil to head to English class. He picked up his bag and was about to say goodbye when Roman spoke.

 

“Hey Virgil?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“If we don’t find someone with the blue test, I’m going to go back to classes no matter what, you might want to get ready for that, like, emotionally.”

 

Virgil swallowed, “I know,” he said, “see you in an hour.”

 

“See you,” Roman blew him a kiss. What a dork, Virgil thought. He ran from the infirmary to the English classroom, he’d really spent way too long with Roman.

 

He sat down in his usual seat, breathing hard and sweating slightly, his chest hurt, he really shouldn’t have let it get that late.

 

“If Mr Mendax wasn’t also late you would be in trouble,” Logan said.

 

“Virgil you need to take is easy, running all the way from the infirmary isn’t good for you,” Patton turned around in his desk to parent him.

 

Virgil was about to tell them about Roman returning to classes this week when Mr Mendax walked into the room, as pair of yellow gloves hanging out of his pocket. He took the gloves and put them in the trash can next to the door but Virgil, Logan, and Patton all saw it, a distinctive blue stain on the fingertips.


	18. Chapter 18

Class was a blur after that realisation. Virgil could practically hear the gears turning in Logan’s head. He knew he should have faith that Logan could figure this out, the others seemed to have such unwavering confidence in his ability to solve problems. But all Virgil could think of were all the ‘what ifs’ and ‘hows’ that swirled about his mind, offering no solutions to the questions and scenarios that they posed. Virgil felt paralysed. He couldn’t think more than a sentence before some new, and frankly horrible, question would claim his attention. His instincts screamed at him to run, to hide, to fight, and it was becoming harder and harder to ignore them.

 

Mr Mendax left after dismissing them and Logan motioned for Virgil and Patton to stay, so they did. Once the classroom was emptier, Patton put his arms around Virgil’s shoulders.

 

“You got this, kiddo,” Patton said, exaggerating his breathing so that it was easier for Virgil to time his breaths with Patton’s.

 

“We’re the same age,” Virgil complained, but he leant into the hug, glad for the warmth and safety that it offered.

 

“Go it.” Logan said from the other side of the room. He was wearing the blue nitrile gloves, the first aid kit on the wall was open, indicating where he’d gotten them from. He was carefully holding the yellow gloves, complete with the blue stains on the fingertips.

 

Virgil still felt dazed, but he was comforted by Logan’s competence, they had some kind of proof. Why had Mr Mendax left those gloves in the classroom trash can? The obvious answer was that he didn’t know what the blue meant, but Virgil still ran through every other possible explanation, just in case.

 

They made their way down to the infirmary without speaking, there was too much to process. The route was familiar enough now that even Virgil could find his way despite barely being present.

 

Roman jumped up and smiled broadly when they entered his room, though it flickered and disappeared when he saw their sober expressions. “Oh God what is it?” He asked.

 

“We, um,” Patton paused, trying to find some way to phrase it that wasn’t awful, but with an awful situation sometimes, you have to say awful things out loud, he supposed. “We know who’s been trying to poison you. You might wanna sit down for this.” Roman sat back down. Patton glanced at the other two, clearly torn between wanting to tell Roman and not wanting to say anything to upset him. Virgil took over, it was like a band-aid, you just had to rip it off, “It’s Mr Mendax.”

 

“What?” Roman looked from Virgil to Patton to Logan, looking for any sign that this was a joke, or that they weren’t sure. “How do you know?” He asked, breathing deeply and purposefully.

 

Logan places the yellow gloves in a kidney dish and handed them to Roman, “These were in his pocket, he placed them in the bin during class and you can see the tell-tale staining.” Logan used his still-gloved hands to show Roman the blue parts of the gloves. “I intend to test them further, hopefully I will be able to get a DNA sample from these gloves and one from Mr Mendax to compare it to in order to confirm this.”

 

“I swear this school has everything, it’s ridiculous,” Virgil said when he realised Logan meant to do DNA testing at school.

 

“Please, if I asked my parents for the means to do polymerase chain reaction analysis, they’d send the school one within a week. Fortunately for our time constraints, I did so over two years ago.” Logan spoke so matter-of-factly that Virgil’s mind almost didn’t comprehend what he was saying.

 

“But why would Mr Mendax want to poison me?” Roman’s voice was softer than usual, barely above a whisper.

 

“I don’t know,” Logan said, “and I do not like not knowing things. I was hoping you might have some idea.” Roman shook his head and looked down sadly.

 

“Well, there’s one way to find out.” Virgil sat down next to Roman, both of them leaning into each other. Virgil pulled out his phone and logged into the Foster database. He pulled up the teacher’s profiles, which weren’t as useful as the student’s ones as they usually only had a photograph, job title, and contact email. He pulled up ‘Richard Mendax’ and opened google.

 

“Nothing,” Virgil said, “not even a LinkedIn profile,” but he wasn’t giving up. He searched the email address which, of course came up with nothing as Foster Academy didn’t, officially speaking, exist. Down to his last resort he downloaded Mr Mendax’s profile picture. He opened google reverse image search and added ‘&imgtype=face’.

 

How do you even know to do that?” Patton asked, he and Logan had moved behind them and were looking at the phone over their shoulders.

 

“I spent the last year being tormented online, I learned a few tricks.” Virgil said. Roman turned around to see Patton and Logan’s expressions. They definitely hadn’t known. The fact that Virgil had trusted him alone with such personal information made his heart swell.

 

“There.” Virgil said. He handed Roman his phone. The screen displayed a simple news page that said ‘Who’s next in line?’ It was dated to 2000, the year before Roman was born. Logan read the page aloud, it was old and showed its age, but it was readable on a mobile device provided the reader had a lot of patience and determination to find the truth. Fortunately, Logan had both of those things.

 

“In a day and age where Monarchies have become redundant, only a few countries still have this problem, who is going to inherit the throne? Wondry is currently facing a crisis of this sort: King Cray and Queen Ethne are yet to have an heir to the Maoilriain dynasty, which begs the question, who would inherit if something were to happen to them?

 

There aren’t many obvious answers, for since the house of Maoilriain began in 1864, taking over from the House of Thorne after Princess Eilish Thorne married Firas Maoilriain, and even before that, during the house of Thorne, it was common for the King and Queen to only have one child. So, in order to find the person with the strongest claim to the throne, the house of Maoilriain will have to look further up their family tree.

 

Trystan Thorne, was a rare exception to the only child rule, as younger brother of King James. His genealogy can be traced to today’s House of Anwir, made up of lower-level peers.”

 

The photo at the top showed a young man holding up the Anwir coat of arms, and though he looked younger, the facial recognition had not failed them, it was undeniably Mr Mendax.

 

“It’s the oldest reason in the book,” Roman said, a touch of bitterness in his voice, “Get me out of the way and the kingdom would be in chaos, then he’d show up, so sorry for the tragedy that occurred and set himself up as the new crown prince. I love the Lion King, and Frozen, I know how this works.” Roman was breathing fast and erratically.

 

“Roman,” Virgil said, “You know how you have to breathe to sing? Deep from the bottom of your stomach? Do that. And slow it down. . . much better.” Roman focused on his breathing and smiled, his face much calmer.

Virgil just looked around at them, he was at a complete loss. He shook his head.

 

“What the hell are we gonna do?”


	19. Chapter 19

Virgil got up the next day before any of the others. He grabbed some breakfast stuff for himself and Roman and headed down to the infirmary. No way in hell was he going to English class this morning, no sir. He knew if he went he’d either blow their cover by panicking, or he’d jump out of his chair and beat the life out of Mr Mendax, and neither of those options would lead them to where they wanted to go. He texted Patton and Logan: “I’m in the infirmary. Not going to English.”

 

“Virgil? Hi!” Roman said as Virgil entered.

 

“I brought you breakfast,” Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe he was overstepping his bounds, maybe Roman would throw him out.

 

“Thanks,” Roman said, patting the bed next to him. Virgil poured them both some cereal and handed Roman his bowl as he sat down.

 

They ate in silence, enjoying the warmth of each other’s company. Roman hummed something as he rinsed their bowls out. He at back down and wrapped his arms around Virgil and smiled contentedly. Virgil was never going to understand him.

 

“Roman?” He asked.

 

“Mmhmm?” Roman hummed from Virgil’s shoulder.

 

“How can you be so calm about this? I can’t even bring myself to face English class, and you’re sitting here like nothing’s wrong.”

 

“Because it’s not really about me.” Roman said. Virgil twisted himself out of the embrace, so he could see Roman’s face.

 

“It’s not about- Roman! Someone literally tried to kill you.”

 

“But it’s not over me or something I did, it’s about the crown. I’m used to it.” Roman said flippantly.

 

“Used to what?”

 

“All the political backstabbing, the rumors, the lying, hell even the assassination plots! It’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. You think this is the first time someone’s tried to remove me from the line of succession? It’s the first time someone’s used poison, I’ll give you that, but this, for me, is normal. This, I can live with.”

 

“How the hell are we supposed to survive it?” Virgil asked. He’d never realised just how fucked up Roman’s childhood must have been. How was he supposed to insert himself into that? How was he supposed to stay by Roman’s side throughout all this? How was he supposed to ignore the way his mind creamed at him to run away and never look back?

 

“People have done for years,” Roman said, “It’s possible.”

 

“But they shouldn’t have to. Argh! You shouldn’t have to!” Virgil was trying to make sense of why he was so upset. “How do you live every day knowing people want you dead?”

 

“That’s why I was so messed up the last few weeks,” Roman said, confusing Virgil, “I thought someone hated me for me, but it’s just that they want to take my place. It’s not my fault, it isn’t anything I’ve done, so I can live with it. It’s bad, what Mr Mendax is doing, but it’s just ambition, not hatred.”

 

“But if it has the same outcome why does it matter?”

 

“It matters to me, I don’t want to be hated.” Roman said the last words quietly.

 

“It sucks, I wouldn’t recommend it. But what sucks about it is what people do when they hate you.” Virgil was still trying to reason with Roman. “I don’t want you to be in danger and I know I can’t protect you, I couldn’t even protect myself.” Oops, Virgil hadn’t meant to bring that up.

 

“Virgil,” Roman said, “You don’t have to protect me. For starters, we’re both boys so that outdated gender stereotype doesn’t even apply, and if it did I would definitely be the protector. But I think you get what I’m saying, I don’t want anyone to get hurt, certainly not myself, but knowing I didn’t bring it on myself helps me.”

 

Virgil realised that this was Roman’s way of making up. He got it . . . sort of. Part of him wanted to keep pushing this, to make sure Roman knew that no matter what he did he would never, ever deserve this. But that was something he could say later.

 

“Oh I’m sorry,” Virgil said jokingly, “Did you save me from getting outed to twitter in your first week? Didn’t think so.” He said, “I’m definitely the protector.”

 

Roman laughed, and Virgil continued, “Who carried you back to our dorm when you first got sick?”

 

“You have a point.” Roman said, smiling slyly, “I guess this makes you my dark and stormy knight. Get it? Knight? With a K.”

 

“Ugh, don’t let Patton hear you say that, I’ll never live it down.” Virgil groaned.

 

“Too bad I’m never going to call you anything else.”

 

“Oh yeah? You’re gonna give up on the opportunity to keep making up nicknames for me?”

 

“Another valid point, you are on fire today.”

 

Virgil didn’t have to go to class before lunch. After English, it was sport, followed by his free so he was able to stay with Roman, which was good. He wasn’t sure he could bear to let Roman out of his sight.

 

Patton and Logan came down with lunch for the four of them.

 

“But it’s wrong Logan!” Patton was saying.

 

“Surely someone forfeits the right to protect their privacy when they attempt to murder someone.” Logan responded.

 

“Yeah, after they’ve been tried and convicted, or after a judge has granted a court order. The truth is that those rules were out in place for a reason, besides, it won’t hold up in court as evidence if you obtained it illegally.” Patton said, smartly.

 

“Hello Virgil, Roman,” Logan nodded at them, “Patton has decided that it would be unethical for me to use DNA evidence to prove that Mr Mendax is guilty, so we’re going to have to come up with an alternative means of evidence.”

 

“What do we need?” Roman asked.

 

“Something concrete, that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that a) he was responsible for poisoning you, and b) that he did it with the intent to murder you.”

 

Roman hummed in acknowledgement and looked around, his eyes out of focus. He was reciting the lyrics to ‘One Jump Ahead’ from Aladdin under his breath.

 

He stopped and looked around at them, his sly grin plastered on his face.

 

“I have an idea.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw for violence, gore, and major character injury

Virgil wasn’t sure how he managed to survive the next two days. He was torn between a constant state of panic and hope. The panic was a pain he was used to and could handle, but hope could do far worse damage, and Virgil knew that all too well. Could Roman’s plan seriously work? It was dangerous and risky, but it was their only shot.

 

He sat with Logan in double English, he must have read act five of Hamlet a hundred times in that class alone, trying to ignore Mr Mendax and breathe, each activity as difficult for him as the other. He could feel each and every muscle in his body tensing and untensing, forever ready to fly or fight.

 

When the bell rang he and Logan made a big show of leaving the classroom and not talking to Patton. Patton’s hurt expression was heart-wrenching, but they kept going. Once they were out of the room they doubled back and stood against the door frame. They pressed their ears against the crack beside the door and got ready to listen.

 

“Sir?” Patton’s kind voice was strained as he approached Mr Mendax’s desk.

 

“Yes, Mr Addison?”

 

“I just – this is stupid – but Roman, he thinks you’ve tried to poison him. And I just-, he’s just sick, its ridiculous! Can you come with me to the infirmary to show him that he’s wrong?”

 

“But of course,” Mr Mendax’s deep voice just sounded slimy to Virgil.

 

“Let’s go,” Virgil murmured to Logan, who nodded in agreement.

 

They took every short-cut they knew down to the infirmary, racing through the main science labs and cutting through the kitchens. By the time they made it to Roman’s room they were both wheezing from the effort. But there wasn’t time to catch their breath. Roman got out of his bed and approached them, his face filled with fury and determination.

 

“Time to take down a traitor,” He said, grim but determined.

 

Patton and Mr Mendax entered the room. Mr Mendax approached the foot of Roman’s bed.

 

“Well, well, well, I hear you’ve been spreading lies about me.” Mr Mendax said. He grasped the rails at the end of the bed and leant over Roman like a vulture surveying a carcass.

 

“Patton, how could you?” Roman asked, eyes wide with betrayal.

 

“I-I” Patton ran from the room.

 

“Now that it’s just the two of us we can have a proper little family reunion, can’t we Roman?” Mr Mendax smiled nastily, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Shall I get you some dinner? Or should I just cut to the chase?” Mr Mendax pulled a vial out of his pocket that looked like it was filled with caster sugar, but they all knew it was filled with something much deadlier. He put on another pair of yellow gloves and approached Roman. “I only need to pinch your nose and eventually you’ll have to open your mouth for air, or you could make it easier for both of us, little prince, and open your mouth for me.”

 

Roman just glared at him. He knew that if he opened his mouth to say anything the contents of that vial would be shoved down his throat before he even got so much as a syllable out.

 

“Or we could do it my way,” came Virgil’s voice from the door. He jumped down from the door-frame, kicking the welding Logan had put in place to lock the door. Virgil rushed Mr Mendax, grabbing a food tray of Roman’s side table. He used the tray as a blunt weapon, smashing Mr Mendax on the side of his face. He crumpled to the floor.

 

Mr Mendax’s eyes darted to the door, just as Logan put in the final few welds, nothing short of a battering ram was getting that door open any time soon. Of course, there was another door, the one that lead into the infirmary office and staff room, that door opened then to reveal Patton, standing with his arms crossed at Mr Mendax.

 

Virgil grabbed the poison off Mr Mendax and handed it to Logan. “Evidence enough?” Virgil asked.

 

“With everything else it should be sufficient.” Logan responded.

 

“You little shits,” Mr Mendax snarled.

 

“I’d be careful about throwing names around in here,” Roman said grandly, every inch the prince, “labels have a tendency to stick, _traitor_.”

They had Mr Mendax surrounded, Virgil in front of him, and Patton and Logan at the doors, surely the hard part was over now? No. Their luck never worked like that.

 

Mr Mendax kicked Virgil hard in the chest, leaving him on the ground crying out in agony, the kick had hit his old wound. Looking at the two doors, Mr Mendax made the obvious choice and rushed Patton, darting into the infirmary staff room. But he didn’t run. Roman was the first to realise why. Mr Mendax wasn’t about to leave four witnesses to what he’d done.

 

Mr Mendax emerged from the room, stepping over Patton casually, he glared at Roman, brandishing several scalpels.

 

“I had hoped to do this more cleanly.” He said, sighing, “I even had my speech prepared for your funeral, it was very moving. But no, now you can die messily. And so can your precious friends.”

 

Virgil watched as Mr Mendax moved into a stance he’d never seen before. He’s going to throw the scalpel at Roman, Virgil realised, and before he could think he leapt up and tackled Roman off his bed, they landed messily on the ground, but intact.

 

“You know, if you wanted to get me into this position, all you had to do was ask.” Roman winked at Virgil from underneath him.

 

“I’ll keep that in mind when lives aren’t at stake.” Virgil told him, standing up to keep an eye on Mr Mendax.

 

“Promises, promises.” Roman sighed, before facing the man who’d tried to kill him. Oh God no, he thought.

 

Mr Mendax aimed again, and Roman realised he must have experience with throwing knives, as his body took the stance so easily. He and Virgil both braced to dodge, but Patton moved behind Mr Mendax, his arms wrapped around Mr Mendax’s legs, pulling him to the ground.

 

Mr Mendax fell, but he had enough time in the fall and enough control over where he landed, that the scalpels now pointed at Patton.

 

“No!” Logan screamed, but he was the furthest away. Roman sprang into action, Patton wasn’t dying, not because of him. He grabbed Mr Mendax and wrapped his forearms around his neck, squeezing him in a choke-hold. Mr Mendax brought an armed hand up to him, but Roman ignored the sting of the blade slicing into him and focused on making sure Mr Mendax ran out of oxygen. Even after Mr Mendax had stopped struggling, Roman held on, not wanting the slimy bastard to get another opportunity to trick them. It was only the sound of Patton’s laboured breathing that made him finally put the unconscious body down.

 

“Hold this down!” Logan ordered Virgil who was kneeling beside Patton. Virgil pressed some gauze onto Patton. Oh God that was his neck. Virgil was shaking, probably from the effort of not crying, Roman knew the feeling.

 

“Hey, kiddo,” Patton’s voice was weak, “It’s gonna be OK, you’ll see.”

 

“He hit your anterior jugular vein, but just barely, Patton do you know what blood type you are?!” Logan’s voice was frantic, he looked seconds away from pulling his hair out.

 

“Just be positive,” Patton giggled, “Get it? Because I’m B positive?”

 

Logan looked like he was torn between kissing Patton and screaming. He ran into the office and pulled out an IV and the blood bag. He screamed “Doctor Goldberg!” out the door to the staff room for good measure.

 

He hooked Patton up to the IV with methodical precision, his hands didn’t even shake but tears fell down his eyes. He gasped with relief when Doctor Goldberg came into the infirmary and took over. All three of them stared at their hands that were covered in Patton’s blood.

 

“He’ll live.” Said Doctor Goldberg after what felt like an eternity. Roman felt some of the horrible guilt that was settling in his chest lessen slightly. “But what the hell happened here?”


	21. Chapter 21

The four of them were sitting in Mr Sanders’ office, the space was more cramped than usual due to the addition of extra chairs to accommodate all four of them. Virgil had always supposed that the head of a super prestigious school like Foster academy would have a full-blown antechamber and private office to rival a king’s entrance hall. But instead the room was small and cosy, a few pictures of a sweet family, two dads and two children, as well as two dogs, were hung on the walls in pride of place, the only other decoration being a degree, hung behind Mr Sanders’ head as was the tradition.

The room was made further cramped by the fact that Patton was still weak from his injury and had to be brought in via wheelchair. Patton had spent the whole journey to the principal’s office wondering if he would be allowed to keep the wheelchair while he recovered because he was enjoying the freedom it gave him.

Of course, now all chatter was silenced. Virgil could taste the ear in the room, even Logan, who had come armed with the recording’s he’d taken in the infirmary that fateful afternoon, and Roman, whose sense of justice was strong enough to take on an army, were afraid. There was something about sitting in a principal’s office that always made you feel like you’d done something incredibly wrong – even if you were collecting an award.

Logan didn’t speak as he handed Mr Sanders’ his phone, and Virgil tried not to flinch as he heard the sounds of their battle in the infirmary. He heard the horrifying slash of Patton’s throat, Virgil put his hand in Patton’s and pressed his head into Roman’s shoulder, hoping he could ignore what happened next. He hated hearing Logan’s desperate tone as his mind went into overdrive, pushing away personal feelings and leaving only clinical detachment, but not quite succeeding because it was Patton. 

Finally, the recording finished, and the room fell silent again. Mr Sanders stared at the four students before him, his expression unreadable. Virgil watched him survey them, willing him to say something, anything.

“I’m so sorry,” Mr Sanders said, “that I didn’t see what Richard was. His resumé was faultless and his references stuck to his story and I’ll never understand how he passed the background check, but he made it into this school, my school, and for that I am truly sorry. I failed you, and I will never be able to apologise enough.” Mr Sanders made eye contact with each of them, Virgil could see that his apology was sincere.

“Especially you Mr Addison, it was a brave thing you did, saving your friends like that. I have alerted the authorities here in the US, but I wanted to ask you, Mr Maoilriain, if it would be better for him to be tried in Wondry?”  
“Well, you guys still have the death penalty, so I’m inclined to say keep it here,” Roman said lazily, gently extracting himself from Virgil. Virgil hadn’t even realised that he was clinging to him so tightly. “But the fact is that he’s a citizen of Wondry as far as I can tell, and he has committed crimes against the crown, as well as against the US. Perhaps you should have him tried in both countries? Reach a sentence for each and find a way to do both? I’m not an expert in US law but I believe that Wondry has precedence for such events put in place already.”

“Well, in that case I will contact your parents. Mr Berry, if you would please send me the files of your recordings and any other points of evidence, I will ensure that none of you will have to deal with the court proceedings unless you are directly called upon, and I will do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen, you’ve all been through enough as it is.” Mr Sanders said.

“Thank you,” Virgil said.

“And you don’t need to be sorry,” Patton added, “Mr Mendax fooled us all, hell, he’d been our teacher since we were freshmen.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Mr Sanders sighed, “I just hope the parents see it that way.”

“They will.” Roman declared, ‘If I have to tell every last one of them personally.”

“Thank you, Mr Maoilriain, you can go.” He said. They turned and left, making their way back to the infirmary even though Roman had been discharged.

“Once you get out of here, Pat” Roman said, “I am never coming back here again, not even if someone cuts my arm off in fencing.”

“Like I wouldn’t drag you here kicking and screaming.” Virgil quipped.

“I’d like to see you try.”

“I’ve already done it once, Bring it on, Princey.”

‘Whatever you say Robert Downer Jr.”

Logan rolled his eyes at the two of them, which was pretty rich coming from the person who was currently spoiling Patton rotten, Virgil thought. Logan had fetched Patton all of the blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals from his room, and had been waiting on Patton hand and foot not matter how much he tried to deny it. And he swore at one point he saw Logan in a blue unicorn onesie fetching a tub of ice-cream at midnight for Patton. At least Virgil and Roman weren’t being that sickly cute.

“Aw Roman, if being here upsets you, you can go.” Patton said, giving Roman a concerned look.

“And leave you?” Roman looked affronted, “Never in a million years!”

“Aww I love you too, Roman.” Patton wheeled over to Roman for a hug, which he got.

It felt like it had been a long time since Virgil had allowed himself to exhale, but he could see his new future forming around him, and for once, it didn’t fill him with terror.


	22. Chapter 22

The week before term ended Roman was freaking out. He didn’t have a performance to demonstrate for drama, all he had was what he’d been working on with Patton, and Patton wasn’t exactly in a fit state to act.

 

Virgil had found him in his room running through monologue after monologue at about two in the morning.

 

“You’re over-reacting, believe me, I’d know.” He said wryly. “Let me help.”

 

Virgil had gone over to his bookcase and looked over the contents before selecting a well-loved copy of much ado about nothing. “How well do you know this?”

 

“It’s Shakespeare!” Roman said, but realised Virgil was waiting for a more solid answer, “I could probably recite the whole thing.”

 

“Good.” Virgil said, “We can do a mash-up of Benedict and Beatrice’s scenes, tell your teacher it shows how dynamics can change over time or something, Mx Stokes should like that.”

 

“We?” Roman was very confused.

 

“Well, I guess, if you don’t want to-“ Virgil looked dejected and Roman quickly went to rectify his mistake.

 

“No, please!” Roman exclaimed, “I definitely want your help, I’m just surprised.”

 

“Well, only Mx Stokes is going to see it, so I guess I can live with that, it shouldn’t be too much of a horrible judge-fest.” Virgil said before being swept up into a hug.

 

‘Hey do you know what your Hogwarts house is by any chance?” Roman asked, mostly because he’d been reading Harry Potter in an attempt to calm down earlier.

 

“No.” Virgil said, Roman didn’t want to pry but apparently the curiosity showed on his face because Virgil huffed, ”I just never really fit into any of them, it kind of sucks. Can we get back to the task at hand?” Roman considered pressing the issue but he could see Virgil putting defences up around the topic, better to come back to it later.

 

They had less than a week to rehearse, if they hadn’t both been familiar with the text they’d have been screwed. Roman was even so worried about the performance that he missed several opportunities to either hit on or make fun of Virgil which simply wasn’t like him at all. It didn’t help that on the Friday morning they were due to perform, Virgil was late.

 

“Sorry!” He huffed as he ran into the theatre, “I had to get this from the Textiles classroom, I went after dinner to finish it last night.” Virgil reached into a bag and handed Roman a pile of fabric. Roman unfurled it to reveal a white prince suit decorated with gold trim in a style reminiscent of Georgian fashion, the Wondry crest, in red and gold, had been lovingly embroidered onto the shoulders. A red sash tied the whole ensemble together.

 

“It’s my textiles major project. I was too nervous to measure you so I had to guess some of the measurements, but it should fit.” Virgil looked at Roman apprehensively. “Do you like it?”

 

“Like it?” Roman was at a loss for words. Well, when in doubt, be melodramatic, he supposed. “Like it?! It’s the greatest thing I have ever seen!” He exclaimed. “Thank you, Virgil,” He said in his normal voice.

 

“Yeah, well, whatever,” Virgil’s words did little to mask his blush.

 

After their performance Virgil pulled another thing out of the bag, it was a black hoodie with purple plaid patches embroidered using a rather chaotic-looking stitch pattern.

 

“Your minor project?” Roman asked, Virgil nodded, “That is . . . magnificent.” Roman said, making Virgil smile, “How you’ve managed to become even angstier.”

 

“Ohhh-kay,” Virgil rolled his eyes.

 

“No, if that’s what you want to, uh, rock, then you rock it, sir. Who needs a Hogwarts house, when you have your own, hog-wild style. I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore . . .”

 

Virgil smirked, “Yeah it is uh, pretty hog-wild,” he snorted. “Did you get blinded by gay or something for a second there?”

 

“Probably.”

 

“Hey um speaking of, well, gay, I wanted to ask you something,” Roman began, feeling bad when Virgil’s face immediately went defensive. Maybe one day he’d show Virgil that not everything would go wrong. “Would you like to go to Wondry over Summer break? You don’t have to but I just- uh, I’d like you to see it.”

 

“Aren’t you worried about getting outed? What about the whole heir situation?” Virgil asked.

 

“Well, I’ve been trying to think up a solution to that, and I think I’ve come up with something so far out of the box it might just work.”

 

“Which is?”

 

“Adoption is a thing. And surrogacy, imagine the diplomatic ties you could make with a child with three parents. Besides, having you in my life is important enough to me that I’m willing to try anything . . . Well almost anything.” Roman said, barely able to take a breath before Virgil kissed him. Yeah, his future may not be so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it <3 That's the end of the fic. If you liked it let me know because I'm thinking about writing a sequel.


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